Monster Road

  The night schedule has started to take a toll on my health.  Specifically my weight.  I wasn't eating right and sleeping all day, thus no exercise and lots of bad calories.  So I figured it was time for a change.  I used to fence and until I find some where to do that I'm running.  I'm running in the morning right after my shift ends and before I go to bed.  I certainly never thought I'd become a runner but with the proper equipment and a bit of Google research I'm finding it enjoyable.  It does help that in the mornings most people are just starting their day and they aren't feeling the crush of life as quite the burden it will seem later in the day.  Of course fresh air and the chirping of birds helps a bit too.  
  The path I'm running takes me back to my childhood literally and figuratively and it's bringing back memories I'd thought forgotten. The time in question is of a simpler time and life.  I wasn't aware of Urban Legends and so ended up repeating what was based on a local spot in my home town.
  It was called Monster Road and as kids we had heard the story.  Who first told the story none of us knew but we loved repeating it on stormy nights or over Smores around the campfire when out camping in the summer months. This  is how it went.  
  It's the typical teenager story with a teenage boy and girl on a date.  They are driving back late at night after a movie and a hamburger at the local joint.  The boy of course is being a boy and trying all those boy things we get to when there's a girl involved.  He stops on an out of the way road and pulls the "the car won't start" ploy.  Ages old and always a failure because it's ages old.  The girl likes the boy, but after a few minutes of "shenanigans" decides it's time to get home.  After a few more minutes of patiently explaining that if she doesn't get home on time, the car not starting will be the least of his worries.  Yes she mentions dad.  The boy decides that yes the car should be working now.  To add credence to his story though he decides to make a show of checking the engine.  So he gets out and raises the hood and asks her to turn the key.  The car really doesn't start this time. The boy notices that the battery cable has been ripped off the battery. After convincing the girl that this isn't what he had planned, he decides to go for help.  Telling the girl to get in the back seat and cover herself with a blanket (by this time his original plan was a distant memory).  He tells her to not look out or make any noise until he calls her name.  He gets a quick kiss for his bravery and then he walks off into the darkness.  Keep in mind this was out in the countryside and so no street lights.  Just the light of the moon in and out of the clouds to illuminate the night.  A few minutes later she hears a lite scratching noise.  She keeps her head down and waits for her knight in shining armor to come back.  On and off thru out the nite she continues to hear the scratching sound but can't tell what it is.  She is getting more and more scared as the hours wear on but doesn't come out from under the blanket.  She finally succumbs to a fitful sleep and is awakened by a man's voice.  He identify's himself as the local sheriff and calls her by name.  She peeks out and see's that it really is the officer.  He gets her to unlock the car door and as she walks away he tries to keep her from looking back at the car.  She glances back though and is horrified to see her boyfriend hanging from a tree directly over the roof of the car and as the wind blew, his fingers scrapped the metal. 
  So there you have the story we told each other as kids.  What lent it reality was the fact that outside of our town there was a road called, Monster Road.  No one knows how it really got it's name but us kids knew.  The adults never corrected us, so there it was.  The funny thing is that I believed that story well into adulthood.  It wasn't until my 40's that I heard a variation of the story but with the same road name.  That's when I realized how foolish I was as a kid.  It was an Urban Legend and I had helped perpetuate the story.  I will say though that when I'm out running and I start down the road (which was renamed back in the 80's) I do look around and hope I don't run into the Monster of Monster Road. Oh and I still don't go there after dark.  Just sayin'.  Okay it's Midnite so that's my cue.  Time to SIGN ON.

Old friends

Here's a quick update before my shift.  Jerry's back in town after his excursion to the big city.  He called a while back during my shift and we got together in the morning.  We talked about how things went.  I learned that he had left originally because the ghost thing had scared the crap out of him.  So he needed to get away.  The acting gig didn't really pan out.  He ended up working graveyard shift at a 24 hr mini mart.  The trip to the big city showed him that in reality he had a good thing up here.  So he decided to come back.  He got his job back at the mini mart and I gave him a couple of graveyard shifts at the radio station.  Turns out he's quite good as a DJ.  Probably the acting training.

The rest of the radio station crew stayed on and I'm glad as it's a good group.  The program director doesn't have to worry about me playing something not on the playlist and getting her in trouble with the owners.  I don't have to pretend to care when the owners come to town anymore and that's a bonus right there.  I hired a couple more staff so everybody can have time off if they want and not have to worry.  Alright the clock is ticking and getting close to that time of the night so I'm done here.  I think the subject for tonight's discussion will be heroes and what they mean to us as humans.  There's the ON-AIR light so signing off.

Time flys when you're having fun

Wow has it been two years almost since I last regaled you with stories of my late nite happenings?  As you may have guessed a lot of stuff has happened in the world of Midnite 2 Six.  The biggest change is that I no longer have to work if I don't want to.  Your first thought is wow he quit and became a hermit living in a cave.  Ha as it turns out that is pretty much true but not for the reasons you might think.  Do you remember about two years ago right around the time I stopped updating this blog, there was a Lottery winner of the largest drawing in the history of Lottery drawings?  No one had hit it for months and it kept growing and growing, well someone finally hit it all by themselves. 
Yep that was me.  You may be asking yourself why I am telling everyone and frankly it is a matter of public record so not much I can do to hide.  Which is why I'm now talking about it.  My story goes something like this and if you are one of those people who play the Lottery every time you're not going to be too happy.  I hardly ever played the lottery and in fact don't really believe in playing it other than as an exercise in imagination ( you know imagine what it would like if I won millions).  But since I had been hanging out with Jerry, he would encourage me to play at times. 

So anyway sure enough I played(only bought one ticket for a $1) and the next thing I know, BAM, I'm rich. 
Not just rich but stinking wealthy rich.  Way more money than I can ever spend rich.

So what did I do with my new found wealth?  Paid off all my debts (which amounted to a three figure credit card debt and my bar bill).  I did buy a new car but that was pretty much it.  I've always had money and never really tried to keep up with the Jones so I was at a loss as to what to do with this windfall.  A couple of days after the shock had wore off and I'd got in contact with a financial person to help me sort this out.  I got a call from the radio station (they didn't know yet as the lottery commission hadn't announced my name) asking if I could work an extra shift.  A dj was needing some time off while his wife had their baby.  My first thought was, huh why should I work anymore?  My second thought was, sure why not.  And my third thought was, I knew what I was going to do with the money.

Yes you guessed it.  I bought the radio station.  It wasn't too hard as it was owned by an out of state corporation that had fallen on hard times and was more than willing to off load an under-performing drain on their resources.

I rearranged everyone's schedule to their liking and made sure I could still work the graveyard shift IF I wanted to.  Which works out great as I have been also helping out around town here and there.  So there you have it my life for the last two years and where I've been.  I'm still spinning records but now the format is what I want it to be and that's pretty much what the listeners want.  I learned that working the overnite and I listened, which I'm very good at.  So if you got something to say to the boss of the radio station, give me a call.  I'm on the air every nite Midnite 2 Six, and I will answer the phone.

Oops the red lite is flashing, so that means I'm ON.

What a Life

I've had a pretty good life.  I ended up getting my dream job, of course once I got it I found out what everyone finds out, that sometimes you don't want what you wished for.  Overall though not a bad job.   Just a little too much drama and office politics for me.  I figured it out though and learned to stay away from the drama as much as possible.  Early on I had a mentor who helped me find myself and make the job my own.  He showed me that the drama could work to your advantage as long as you stayed up wind.  As I've said in the past it's not all spinning records and making jokes about the latest weird band story.  There were sad stories of people who found their dream job and couldn't handle the lime light.  The DJ is a lonely job in reality.  Especially when the ratings are coming out and everyone's job is on the line.  It's like being the quarterback on a football team.  Yes there are other players but if a receiver misses a route and the quarterback throws an interception, it's almost always the quarterbacks fault.  So the on air talent takes the hit if the ratings are down.  Unless you are the over night guy then you are pretty much bullet proof as overnite is mostly a dead time for advertising and that's what drives the ratings, advertising.


I finally got another call from Cherie (with a "C") last week but she seemed to be rather uncertain as to what she wanted from the conversation.  I certainly didn't feel the tension (sexual or otherwise) that was there before.  She did ask me what I did on my days off and we talked about various subjects including my adventure with the ghost and my broken leg.  We talked about Jerry moving to LA and his attempt at acting.  I remarked that it had been fun except for the broken leg.  Just before she hung up I got the impression she wanted to ask me something but instead requested a song that wasn't on the play list but she knew I could play it.  And I did.

It's Dark Tonite

When the sun goes down it seems like everything changes. The moon comes out and the stars start gleaming and before you know it there's something in the air. People change, do stuff they'd never do in the light of day. Like the guy who sits at a desk all day talking to clients, selling them anything even if they don't need it. His day ends and it's time to relax. He goes to his favorite watering hole and has a couple of drinks. The alcohol kicks in and the next time you see him he's trying to make the moves on women he'd never approach during the day. He starts acting all tough and the change happens because you can hide in the darkness and they can't see you clearly.

That's another reason why I like the graveyard shift even though it does get a bit weird sometimes. I mean what would you expect from a night time that everyone calls "graveyard". Think about it and the first thing that comes to my mind is "eww dead people" Of course than you could take it a step further and see the fact that everyone who works this shift do come off quite often as "dead" people because of the disruption of the natural sleep pattern. Come on, sleep during the day and awake during the night? Now you know why I like the shift because I get to play music and talk to all the walking zombies out there. They mostly entertain me while I entertain them. And then there's the call from my past. I will have to introduce my former on-air partner, from years ago, next time. The red lite is ON and so am I.

Life in the overnite hours

It's seventeen minutes after the witching hour and you're listening to Midnite2Six. I'm Alex, thanks for joining me. Let me take you for a ride and I promise you won't see the inside of the trunk. You can even sit up front and talk with me. We'll be going down some dark and winding roads but that's the fun part as you can never tell what's around the next corner in the dark.

The radio station is a two story building with the station on the second floor. The windows in the studio face the street. Which makes it fun to people watch while you're on the air. At three o'clock in the morning that can be a blast. Across the street from the station is a niteclub that has a very popular dance club and awesome chinese food. The club is open until 4am but stops serving alcohol at two. The restaurant serves food until three am and delivers. I love won ton soup and they make some of the best I've ever sampled. At three o'clock in the morning there's nothing better than won ton soup.

I've said in the past the "grave yard" shift is different because of the folks who listen. You get the party crowd, who are coming down from whatever high they have been enjoying. They are just trying to make it to their next destination, be it home or someone else's home. Then there are the other over night workers, like Jerry or Cherie. This group is just looking for a way to make it through the night without too much boredom. I can normally help with that. I encourage phone calls, while laying down some hot tracks, as it also makes my night less boring. Talking to people at 3 in the morning can sometimes make me feel like a bartender, you know, someone who will listen to their troubles. I do listen and sometimes find that I can help some of them. Which is why I've started to worry a bit about Cherie (with a C) as I haven't heard from her since that last phone call. It's probably nothing as the graveyard shift is in constant flux, just look at Jerry. I'd like to hear from her though just for my peace of mind.

Did Someone say Ghost?

Continuing the story of how I broke my leg, I have listened to the audio tape I remembered to switch on as we approached the third floor. Here is the transcript of that incident. ....{sound of footsteps walking up stairs}..."Here we are going live for the search for the Ghost in the Building"....{we hear a voice in the background}..."Really".....{Me}..."No not really"....{voice}..."Oh"......

The second floor was dotted with doors, each one an office with a potential story. As we walked down the hall heading for the stairwell leading to the third floor the air seemed cooler than before. We checked each door as we went hoping to "flush" out the spirits that lived here. Most of the doors were locked as the businesses were closed for the evening. Of the few that were unlocked we cautiously entered and looked around. We expected something to jump out at us but no such luck. Heading up the stairs to the third floor I started to feel my heart beat a little faster as the research I had done indicated that the third floor was where we should expect some spirits. A room from the time the building was a hotel was where a murder had been committed. I felt that that was what was causing the sightings Jerry was experiencing.
We were starting to see wisps of our breath in the flash light beams and I was feeling quite a chill now. The hair on the back of my neck was starting to rise as we left the sanctuary of the stairwell. We both jumped when the door creaked as we opened it. Upon entering the hallway of the third floor we saw that there were no lights working. All the light we had were from our flashlights. I was following Jerry when I felt a slight touch on my back, when I turned around there was nothing there. Nerves. It was spooky but then again I shouldn't have been surprised. We advanced down the hallway trying doors as we went. The room where the murder had been committed was at the other end of the hallway. We were about half way there when out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a flicker of color but when I looked, nothing. Even though I didn't see anything I still felt like I'd seen something. We were almost at the door of the room when my flashlight went out and then things got really crazy. I have to stop here for a minute and just say, what I'm about to tell you will be hard to believe. I hardly believe it and I was there. I'm not making this up. I'm not punking you and I have a broken leg to prove it. It was a scene right out of Ghostbusters, Jerry was in front of me and he screamed as an image that reminded me of a....well let's go to the audio transcript again...{Jerry's voice, nervous laughter}..."Oh....JEEZ WHAT'S THAT!"....{a scream of terror, sounds of running and then the crash, bump, smack sound of a body falling down stairs and cry's of pain}

Later Jerry visited me in the hospital and we dance around what happened. He asks me what I saw and I ask him what he saw and so on. He finally tells me that it must have just been our nerves and the flashlights going out. He got scared and ran. My thoughts go in another direction though as I'm sure I saw a glowing figure of a woman with a butcher knife in her hand. And she was heading for us. Jerry tells me he quit his job at the mini-mart and is leaving town. He is heading for the big city, Los Angeles. He's hoping to maybe try his hand at acting. I wish him well. One thing I keep to myself from that night though is I can clearly feel a hand pushing me down the stairs as we were running away. Frankly I didn't look back to see whose hand it was.

After I got out of the hospital I did some more research on the building. I discovered that the murdered woman wasn't actually murdered but was the murderer. Her lover had stepped out on her and she didn't take kindly to that. I guess the wrath of a woman scorned supercedes death.