51

Yesterday morning, back when I was 50, I decided that I was tired of waking up to NPR. Not that I actually listened to the news as I struggled awake--I was just tired of waking up to chatter (although waking up to NPR's chatter is admittedly far less annoying than waking up to those "funny" DJs). Anyway, I twirled the dial until I found one of the local "classic hits" stations, 102.7. This morning, I woke up to the following sequence:

• at 6:oo, the radio came on with one of my favorite bands of the '80s, Big Country (from Scotland) and its first MTV hit, "In a Big Country"; a beat or two after the music came on, the first snippet of lyric I heard was "stay alive"
• next came one of my all-time favorite bands/songs: The Doobie Brothers/"China Grove"
• next, one of my favorite New Wave grooves of the '80s: The Fixx's "One Thing Leads to Another"
• Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper," a nice thought for my 51st
• and the set closed with one of my favorite grooves from the '70s: Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein"

I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert

But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime . . .

In a big country dreams stay with you

Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside

Stay alive