On the Road Alone

The radio was nothing but static so I turned it off. Not literal static, just noise I didn't need driving to work. Everything on AM seemed to be screaming at me. WUSF-FM plays jazz overnights but often the kind that John Lennon complained "played too darn fast." I'd take that rock-n-roll music the old Beatle preferred but rock-n-roll stations are playing the same songs they played when Lennon was still listening. I like Led Zeppelin but I don't need to hear "Ramble On" every day.

I rode alone through the dark of the too early morning to the hum of tires on the highway. It was refreshing. With few other cars to contend with, I was free to daydream my way through downtown Tampa and across the Howard Frankland Bridge. I think people are afraid to be left with nothing but their own thoughts to occupy them. We need noises, voices -- anything to entertain us, anything to keep us from being alone.

Humans are social animals but alone-time in small doses is healthy for us.

Danielle is not ready to face doing traffic reports at WTSP alone. When I walked in to the studio control room where she sat in front of the traffic computer, she turned and burst into a big smile as she saw me. "There you are!" She said. "I thought you had stood me up. Just like prom."

I called her on that. "Nobody has ever stood you up," I said. "When you call, people come running."

She looks that good.