Sally in The MIX

Friday, February 27, 2015

Message to Winter: Go Away!

Warning! Warning! Warning! This is the annual Winter Whine! I am allowed one whine per season. There is not a lot to whine about in the other three seasons. OK. In spring round here who isn’t afraid of tornadoes. Summer gets too hot. That’s it. Fall is delicious. I see no reason to whine about fall unless it rains too much, and I don’t care about that a lot either. But when it comes to winter, I am very opinionated! Like It’s TOO DANG COLD! If I wanted cold I’d be living elsewhere, like Alaska. I have lived there. I have done that. I do not want to do it again. Yet, Oklahoma delivers unto us cold, and sleet, and ice, and snow, and all I can say is STOP IT! I want spring, tornadoes or not. I want green, and I don’t care that I have to pay some fix-it guy a fortune to make my lawnmower run again. I like sitting on the lawnmower and mowing grass in the summer. It makes me feel good.

But right now, it’s winter. It’s cold. Winter has snowed me in twice so far, causing me to be stuck at home developing a super case of cabin fever. And what happens when I get cabin fever? Shopping! Lots of shopping! The next shopping trip is Saturday, right before the next snow storm according to the weatherman. Another snow storm!?! Are you kidding!?! No. Apparently not.

During the last snow-in, Darling Daughter and I texted a lot. She wanted to know what it was like here. I wanted to know what it was like there. She was snowed in more than me, and told me so in no uncertain terms what she thinks of winter. At least she didn’t tell me in words a child can’t say to a mother, or that can be published for polite society although I’m sure she used them. To tell the truth, I may have used a few of those non-polite words myself. Hear us Mother Nature. We are tired of winter. Take it away.

OK. We will admit there are a few winter benefits. One – I am so sick of my regular winter clothes I have begun digging into the unreachable areas of my closets (yes that’s a plural) to find those winter clothes I’d forgotten about. I’m wearing some today. That’s nice. On Sunday I got such a bad base of cabin fever I went looking for jewelry I’d forgotten I had. Found it too. It was almost as good as a shopping trip. Two -  then there’s my answer to the cold. That’s called sleep. If I were a bear I would hibernate all winter long.  Almost do so anyway. I love bundling up under two or three blankets with a house cat and house dog curled up beside me and sleeping the cold away. Did so just last night although I must apologize to house dog Penny, who I accidentally kicked out of bed during a long stretch. Sorry Penny. Last night’s hibernation was so great I overslept by an hour and a half, which means the KXMX crew is calling for this blog right now. Oops. Sorry again. Blame it on winter
But good grief. The door to March opens. And spring follows just three weeks hence. We can hardly wait. All I ask of March is that if it opens like a lion then that lion pick up some wind speed and blow all the leaves in my yard out and away somewhere so I don’t have to rake and burn. Then I’ll be happy and plant my garden. I can hardly wait!

Friday, February 20, 2015

OETA: Great Enough to Brag About

It’s brag time. And it’s not just brag time for me. It’s brag time for all of us. We are going to brag about OETA, our state’s fabulous educational, and free, television. No cable bill here! Our OETA is the top public TV station in the country. Wow. According to a recent article published Jan. 28 and written by Courtney Hamar on OETA and OneNet, quality broadcast services have landed OETA in the number one spot for public television stations in the nation. With an estimated 1.8 million viewers each week, OETA has found itself in the number one or two spot numerous times. That may be because of me, cause I tune into OETA 24/7.

OK. We admit it. “Downton Abbey,” the British sort-of soap opera about the trials and tribulations of an upper-crust family in the early 1900s, has boosted ratings all around the world. And is now my favorite TV show of all time. I don’ know why. I have discussed this Downton Abbey obsession with numerous other fans. We still don’t know why we love this show. I suspect it may be in the genes. Darling Daughter has traced part of our family back to the 1700s in Scotland. I suspect we got run out of the country for some reason, but it’s in our genes to wonder about what might have been.

Downton Abbey isn’t the only OETA show I watch. OETA has so many good dramas and other offerings I have almost given up commercial TV entirely. In my case it all started with Antiques Roadshow. And all those antiques I wish I had bought or my family had hoarded in the attic. Then I went on to Nature, Nova, The History Detectives. Oh my. It’s all that stuff I should have learned in college. My newest educational favorite? “Shakespeare Uncovered.” For all of those who waded through those Shakespeare plays and sonnets, without learning a thing (that would be me) because we were stymied by the language, “Shakespeare Uncovered” is the way to go. I like it so much, I bought it. At last, I understand Shakespeare. I also bought “Downton Abbey,” the fabulous “Sherlock” which features my newest heartthrob Benedict Cumberbatch. (What WERE his parents thinking?) Bene, as I prefer to call him, has been a bit surprised by his new status as a heartthrob. But he’s handling it well, in a career that is burgeoning and has led to an Oscar nomination this year.

Yes. I support public TV. Also bought Ken Burns’ “Civil War” series. Want to learn U.S. history? Watch Ken Burns’ “Civil War.” It makes me cry. “The Roosevelts” was fascinating. Teddy R. deserves our admiration even more than I thought. Next up? “The Address,” about memorizing the Gettysburg Address. Uh. Tried that in high school. Was not successful. But hey, I’ll give it another shot.

Other new stuff:  “Grantchester,” about a conflicted clergyman, who just happens to be really good looking. What is it with all these British shows anyway? “Earth:  A New Wild” relates us to our environment. We better care cause if Nature can’t live here neither can we.

Whatever I want, OETA has. The most trusted news shows, the best cooking shows, the best travel shows, and another of my favorites, our own “Oklahoma Gardening” from OSU. This show inspires this new gardener totally. I realized recently I have nearly given up on commercial TV. I still watch the news, and “The Big Bang Theory” and “Person of Interest” and “Litton’s Weekend Adventure,” of all things. This block of shows, about critters and travel and exploration, was probably designed for kids, and resembles OETA programming a lot, and I love it.

At the beginning here, I made a mistake. OETA is free, but not really. OETA must hold semi-annual fundraising pledge drives to survive. This winter’s drive runs from Feb. 26 through March 15, and features some more good stuff, including Celtic Woman, Peter, Paul and Mary, 50s Pop, Rock Rewind, Motown 25, (yes, I’m showing my age) and other goodies. Please keep our best TV going. Not mine. Ours. Give a bit, and keep OETA on the air. And tune it. You’ll love it.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Animals Behaving Badly, Again?

Not a week goes by when someone doesn’t ask how my critters are. My pets are Penny, my mini-pin, Nuts, my shy cat rescued from the woods, and Holly, the cat rescued from a Sallisaw alley who wouldn’t come out of my bathroom for about three years. My critters are fine. Pen is like me, getting a bit older and a big wider in the hip. Nuts, who is over 13 years of age the best we can figure, seems to have reached some sort of life crisis and romps around the house like a kitten. Holly has come out of the bathroom, but likes to dig around in the potted plants in the window and has been caught lately sneaking around the counter tops in the kitchen at night, and who knows she’s not supposed to, cause when I surprise her and yell “Get Down!” she runs like crazy and hides for hours. She knows she was behaving badly. Can’t tell me that critters are just “dumb” animals. Mine are not dumb at all.

Penny has also developed a new habit, which may be a part of getting older too, just like me. She seems to have lost her patience. Patience is not a part of a mini-pin’s personality. Mini-pins are high-energy, go-get-em dogs. Penny’s just the opposite. She lays around all day, sleeping, until she thinks it’s time to eat. And she lets me know. She have begun to bark, and bark, and bark. It’s maddening. And yelling “Shut up!” at Penny does not work. She sort of gives me a “What? Me?” look, and continues on. Last week I gave her a blast of water from my plant water spray bottle. The barking stopped. Penny was shocked. Couldn’t believe I had done such a thing. Hid under the bed all day. I felt guilty. Penny continues to bark when she thinks it’s time to eat. I put the water bottle away. I’ll just live with it. Ugh.

Since everyone knows about my badly behaving animals. So to broaden the topic, I checked out the internet. Hum. Found cat tearing up the last toilet roll in the bathroom. Well, yes. I had to remove all tissue from Holly’s favorite abode. She thought pulling all the soft facial tissue out of the box was fun, then she could mound it up and sleep on it all day. No more facial tissue for Holly. Not much different from badly behaving animals on the internet.

Hum. Critters breaking into the fridge for a snack. Mine haven’t figured that out yet. However, I began to suspect something was going on when I found door between laundry room and family room was opening every day, apparently on its own. I began surveillance. Caught him. Nuts the cat is trying to escape the house via the family room which also has a loose window. Not going there cat. Door now has extra lock. Not much different from bad cats on the internet.

I love OETA, and just this week they re-ran one of my favorite programs, “Animal Odd Couples.” It’s about critters from different species who fall in love with one another. Uh. How do I make mine watch that show? They are not paying one bit of attention. Penny and Nuts still have those standoffs over Penny’s food bowl. Don’t know what the cat prefers the dog food, or, on the other hand, why the dog prefers the cat food. Given a chance, Penny picks up the cat bowl and runs off to hide with it so she can eat Nuts’ leftovers in peace. Doesn’t make since. Holly refuses to have anything to do with either Pen or Nuts. For a while back there in the coldest part of the winter, Holly loved curling up with Penny on a cold evening. And Penny didn’t seem to mind. Holly has thicker fur than Pen. But now they are ignoring each other totally. However, Nuts still thinks he needs to take a swipe at Holly every time she darts by on the way to supper or wherever. Safe to say, I guess, my critters are not animal odd couples. Well, they are odd, to say the least. As I surfed the net looking for examples of animals behaving badly I noted some folks didn’t like that. It was as though the critters should have been placed in a time out like little kids in trouble. OK. We concede some animals should be punished for some bad behaviors, but let’s not ignore the personalities of our beloved pets. So Penny, Nuts and Holly have odd relationships. Hey, it’s their lives, and our entertainment. Let the critters be. I love my critters. Their antics enhance life.

Friday, February 6, 2015

It's a Whole New World - Out Loud

The transition from print media to radio media can be traumatic, well, at least to me. Was a print media gal for a whole lot of years before getting on the air waves. I actually considered radio way back there in college cause the professor was so charismatic, positive and enthusiastic. But stuck with what I knew best, writing it out. Never dreamed then that I’d be introduced to radio media in my later years. And it should not surprise me that I enjoy it immensely, especially getting that news out there right now! There is another aspect I didn’t know about. The popularity and enthusiasm of the listeners themselves, and the extent to which those air waves go. Good grief. What do you mean that people in every state are listening to KXMX 105.1 FM and reading KXMX news. Did I just say states? Oh good grief, try the world. Yep, around the globe. What I thought was going to be your friendly, neighborhood, county radio station has gone international. Not sure how they (someone, somewhere) counts all this stuff, but here’s the news:  KXMX has a regular audience of over 41,000; has listeners in every state in the Union; plus listeners in 92 other countries (are you kidding me?); is very popular in China (what?); and over a half million viewers have visited the KXMX web site (that almost made me faint).

Fascinating.

And one of the best parts? All those listeners in other countries like to tell us about it. This was a new bit of news to me. In the international community, radio aficionados like to collect stations. And apparently we’re very collectible. Owner Darren Girdner has letters from all over the world, which amazes us. Not only are they hearing KYHN and KXMX, they write to let us know they are listening. Most correspond in English, thank goodness. And most tickle our fancies. Here are a few comments from the KYHN and KXMX international community.

-Michael Haun of Germany heard us while traveling in Spain. He wrote he is 63, and started listening to distant radio stations in 1968. He also likes astronomy, volley ball, soccer and traveling. He wished us “Kind greetings from Germany.” Me: Thank you.

-Stefan Gustavsson sent greetings from Sweden. He likes soccer and badmintone, and his favorites are radio stations from Central and North America. Me: Thank you, and do you mean badminton?

-Torgeir Nyen writes from Norway that his reception was the first time he had ever heard a radio station from Arkansas or Oklahoma. “I wish you good luck with both KYHN and KXMX.” Me:  Thank you.
-Jarmo and Vesa live in Finland, and heard us in Lapland. They write, “Wishing you and your staff all the best. We would be also interested to learn more about your station and programs.” Me:  I know a Mia from Finland. She’s great! Come for a visit.

-And finally, from the Ukraine, we heard from Stanislav Barabash just this week. He made us laugh out loud. He wrote, exactly, as follows: “Allow me to thank you from itself and the colleagues, all staff of your radio station, for excellent operation. Working as the most part of day at the computer, I listen to your radio station. Your radio station helps me ordinary office manager, configured to work, and little to distract from the task of his boss. But in our country not possible to see small gifts with a logo of your radio, pens, sticker, a t-shirt. . .all that remind me of your radio. I am writing to request you to send me if you have such a product with your logo, if it does not entail significant costs for your radio. It would be remarkable. Signed, Your Fan. Me:  You are remarkable my friend. We enjoyed hearing from you, even though I didn’t quite understand it all. Knowing our boss, you can expect to receive a box full of gifts with the logos KYHN and KXMX.

Am I intimidated? You bet I am. A national and international audience is humbling, and we are grateful for the interest. This is a whole new world to me, and has convinced me that I need to keep writing for the air waves, to write it out loud for others to hear.