Sirius Satellite Radio. Serious!
I received an interesting birthday present from my husband.
It was a subscription to Sirius Satellite Radio. But I am starting to wonder if he bought the present for himself or for me.
See, because I am a chef I spend most of my time in the kitchen. One of the things I miss about the USA is ‘A Prairie Home Companion.’ PHC is a radio show hosted by Garrison Keillor and broadcast across the USA on National Public Radio every Saturday night. I have been listening for years, maybe decades. Saturday evenings would always find me near a radio, listening to the show. Until we moved to Canada, that is.
The show is broadcast while I am preparing the Saturday evening supper. I can listen to it on the Internet, but the kitchen is no place for a laptop, so I usually miss the Saturday night broadcast and try to listen later in the week. I find this difficult and frankly, it just isn’t the same. And the idea of downloading a podcast of the show and listening on an I-Pod while jogging or something is downright depressing.
So I mentioned once–only ONCE–to hubby that it would be nice to be able to hear Garrison’ Keillor’s show in the kitchen on Saturday nights while I am working. That was it…just thinking out loud. Who knew he would be listening?
So on my birthday some weeks later there was no gift. “It’s coming,” Jim said convincingly. “You are really going to like it.” Time went by. Then last Friday Jim came home from town all excited carrying a little box. Sirius Satellite Radio! The best gift EVER. The solution to my longing for my favorite radio show. Happiness would reign in the kitchen on Saturday nights.
But first there was an antenna to install and wires to string around the cabinet tops and shelves. We needed speakers. We needed a place for the tiny controller. Jim was having a great time on a ladder figuring all this out while Shirley and I were trying to work underneath.
Finally installed, Jim turned it to his favorite station, Las Vegas Traffic. Being half deaf, he turned it up LOUD. I gave it a good ten minutes before I protested mildly about his choice of stations. He turned it to Patriot Radio, the crazy ranting of the Tea Baggers just before election day. No thanks. Next station to catch his eye…Willie Nelson Radio. All Willie, all the time. I could see that this wasn’t going to work out–bad radio, volume too loud, Jim hanging around while we were trying to work. No, no, no.
With a few harsh words I banished Jim from the kitchen and turned the stupid thing off.
A few days later, alone, I took a look at the available stations. There is some nice stuff. A station that only plays music from the 1940′s and reminds me of home growing up where my dad would play phonograph records of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and he and mom would sometimes dance in the living room. I tried to listen to the BBC but couldn’t understand much of the show that was on. I didn’t realize how much I missed those nut-jobs on Car Talk until I heard the show again. And on Saturday night during the supper service I was able to listen to A Prairie Home Companion right in my Maritime kitchen, sang along to some sweet gospel music and got caught up on the news from Lake Woebegone.
Shirley muttered that she would sooner listen to Willie Nelson but I didn’t pay much attention. You either get it or you don’t. It is a pretty good birthday present if I can keep my husband out of the kitchen and away from the dial.
Tags: Prairie Home Companion, radio shows, sirius satellite radio, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
November 16th, 2010 at 12:20 am
I’m sorry, but you’re never going to be a proper Islander if you don’t listen to the hoedown on Saturday nights.
Surely Shirley is not a Willie Nelson fan? Or was it just the lesser of two evils?
November 16th, 2010 at 7:14 am
Didn’t the hoedown guy get arrested for exposing himself (or some similar pervy thing)? Shirley might indeed like Willie Nelson, maybe just not the combination of the Maplethorpe kitchen, me, Jim and Willie all at once.