Sleepless Nights
Well, I need to do some minor repairs on my bed before I put it back together. [No, the movers didn't break it. It was something I'd been needing to do before the move. The undercarriage isn't in the best of shape, and I need to fix it. Note to self: hardware store on the way home.] So, last night was spent with the boxspring and mattress on the floor. That was Step One on my way to a sleepless night.
I’m really weird about my sleeping environment. For one, my head has to be slightly elevated. Unfortunately for me, I have broad shoulders, and this generally means that the best way to get elevation is to have a pillow up against the headboard. With my mattress down on the floor, this wasn’t going to happen [at least, not at first].
For another bit, I have to have a radio on in the room, with the audio down really low. Call me paranoid, but if the room’s silent, I hear every little thing creaking in the house—the refrigerator going on and off, the roof cooling and contracting, etc. This has been helpful on more than one occasion—mainly because I wake up nearly instantly when the power goes out in the middle of the night. [Last time that happened, I woke up before the ceiling fan had begun to slow very much at all.]
Anyhow, my overnight listening of choice is AM radio, specifically the local ESPN Radio affilliate, ESPN 1450. Well, we had strong thunderstorms in Huntsville last night, and I think they lost power at their transmitter. As with many radio stations these days, they’re not manned 24/7; with a high degree of automation comes a vastly increased response time when you’re off-air. So, I had to go channel surfing. I tried the local news-talk station, but they futzed out after a while, too. I then went to the other sports-talk station, but I’d forgotten how much I hate Fox Sports Radio. I mean, let’s put it this way—after waking up for the fourth time due to the late-night bozo hanging up on a caller and raising his voice by 75%, my inclination was to load my .45 and put a gaping hole in the radio.
Finally, come 2330—a full two hours after first going to bed, on a day when I’d been up since 0400 or so—I switched things up a bit. First, I moved the mattress right by the footboard, which is leaning against the headboard, which is leaning against the wall. That solved my head elevation problem; previously, I was also waking up because I was knocking my pillow clean off the mattress and onto the floor. Then, I started tuning my AM radio and found that the atmospherics were kind to me—I could pick up 700 WLW out of Cincinnati. Exactly what I needed—even-toned announcers blathering about nothing that held any interest for me, allowing me to drift off to sleep quickly.
Man, 0615 came way too fast this morning.
you didnt need any AM radio for those 4 hours we shared with derek adn davejac in Columbia!
June 21st, 2005 at 14:40Well, but I was trying not to sleep soundly that night, Bryan. I didn’t want to wake up at noon.
Besides … there was the relaxation of the joyous bliss of being mere feet away from my idol as we slept. [And no, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about Dave.]
June 21st, 2005 at 14:46Well, the ESPN 1450 problem was NOT MY fault at first. At 8:00, our board op forgot to restart the automation after the Stars got rained out, so when Conference Call ended (which comes over a different satellite service than the rest of our ESPN programming), it went dead air. I was playing poker at Judge Crater’s (formerly Tavern under the square) and noticed as I was headed out, and had to stop by. I can’t vouch for any later power outages in the evening.
June 21st, 2005 at 15:13Well, I thought about calling you. Should I call you when I notice it being offline?
June 21st, 2005 at 15:14Until such time as I could no longer give a rat’s ass…yes, call me.
June 22nd, 2005 at 15:29Will do. I figured out last night, though, that I just get crappy reception upstairs on that radio. [I was getting a signal, but it was fuzzy, like I was out-of-range.] So, I’m having to change my night-time station. I’m deciding between some compilation CD that’s all at the same dynamic level, or just keeping with 700 WLW…
June 22nd, 2005 at 15:31If you’re particularly fond of ESPN Radio, try 1400. It’s out of Decatur. Or 98.1 out of the Shoals. The FM one may be a smidge harder to get, but they have a strong signal.
June 23rd, 2005 at 09:26Well, indeed I am fond of it. [If I could get an alarm clock with XM Radio, I would.
Maybe I can get one of their radios outputted to a low-power FM transmitter...] Thanks for the info, Mike. 
June 23rd, 2005 at 10:05