My morning commute...

Lately I seem to leave the house later and later every day. I've never been a morning person, and winter is especially tough for meas far as getting out of bed. But this morning I left the neighborhood while the kids were still at the bus stop--first time that's happened in a while!

I usually listen to NPR in the morning, but for the past week or so they've been doing a Valentine's Day fundraiser, plus I'm a little sick of primary coverage, so I switched over to music. I've been listening to the same Boston station for the past 5 years and overall I really like it. My favorite feature of this station, 92.9 WBOS, is called "Sunday Morning Over Easy" where the DJ plays a great mix of mellow tunes including many artists that don't usually get much airtime on the station. It was on this program that I first heard the Catie Curtis song "Dad's Yard" which was my dance with my dad at my wedding.

Lately WBOS has been shaking things up a little bit and has surprised me (pleasantly) with the music they've been playing in the morning. Not the usual mix of Coldplay, Jack Johnson, U2, Radiohead, etc., but they've thrown in things like vintage Beastie Boys (I started my drive the other day to "You've Got to Fight for Your Right to Party"--flashback to middle school). This was the soundtrack of my commute this morning:

Landslide, Smashing Pumpkins
Pepper, Butthole Surfers
Here Without You, Three Doors Down
Basket Case, Green Day
Hard Sun, Eddie Vedder
Santeria, Sublime
The One I Love, REM
Sure Shot, Beastie Boys

I had to look this up because I certainly couldn't have named some of these songs and artists if I tried--especially the Butthole Surfers--that's a song that goes back to college and there's something I like about it..."They were all in love with dying, they were drinking from a fountain, that was pouring like an avalanche, coming down the mountain."

The other surprise on my morning drive was 4 white-tailed deer on the side of the road as I drive through Carlisle. I'm no stranger to deer where I live, in fact there were brand new deer tracks all over the lawn this morning after yesterday's snow. That said, I don't usually see them at ten of nine in the morning. Also, at least 2 of these deer had been collared, presumably by the USGS Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (if this study, which tracks the movement of deer, is ongoiong).

Another truly exciting tidbit is that there was a new bird sitting in our maple tree on Tuesday morning. I'm pretty sure it was a mouring dove. It was sitting on a branch all huddled up and looked very cold. I'm looking forward to watching the spring birds move back into our neck of the woods. The cardinals, blue jays, juncos, chickadees, and woodpeckers have all been around through the winter. I think this weekend it may be time to put up the birdhouse (up nice and high and out of reach of the cat). Once the weather warms up and the cat is outside again I'll have to take down the birdfeeders--by then there should be plenty of "natural" food for them to eat!