First, a thank you for the kind e-mails about this still-new blog. It is great and more than a little surprising, to know you're out there taking time to read these minor missives. This time around I want to answer a question posed by one of the e-mails. It is one asked fairly often when I am out and about...like today when I visit the Heritage Village Assisted Living Home in Gladstone. The question is "What time do you get up for work?" FirstNews hits the air at 5:00 a.m. and it takes some time to prepare the forecast and maps and other goodies for the show...not to mention finish several games of solitaire and hearts, as well as the JigZone, on-line jigsaw puzzle of the day. So, I start to roll out of bed around 2:00 a.m. I set three alarm clocks...one plugged into the wall, one operating on batteries and one, old-fashioned wind-up kind. The first alarm is set to the oldies. I always thought the oldies meant Elvis, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers...now, the music is from my young adulthood which means I am the oldie. The second is some electro-tune off a cell-phone...the kind of music Rosie, the Jetson's maid, would enjoy. I can't turn that one off fast enough. Finally, the wind-up alarm is truly alarming. When I first got it and it would ring, dalmatians would magically appear on our doorstep and I would head for the fire-pole to get to the first floor. Unfortunately, it took me several mornings to remember that we don't have a fire-pole but I did get downstairs faster than usual.

Getting up so early gives me the opportunity to view my children asleep in their natural habitats. I feel a bit like Marlin Perkins on the old Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom..."As we make our way deeper into the jungle, you never know what you may see or hear in the dens of these strange creatures...called kids."

My daughter is usually surrounded by the three or four books she is reading at any given time and her TV is on. For a long time, we wondered why, when asked what she wanted for breakfast, she would rap her answer. Turns out she had The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on all night and was picking up tips from Will Smith by nocturnal osmosis. My second oldest son usually opens one eye and snarls at me...not unlike the middle of day, come to think of it. My 16 year old son usually is completely zonked but with a big smile on his face. I don't ask. I've learned that a big part of successful parenting is being selectively stupid. When he was about seven, we were staying at Grandma's cottage, sleeping downstairs. He got up...big smile...and walked right past us, through the laundry room and into a dark little closet where the water softener sat. To this day, if you want to get his attention you just have to yell "Hey, Culligan Man!" Anyway, I like to think the smile on his snoozing, teen-age face is just a happy memory of Grandma's house. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The most entertaining child to watch sleep is the youngest boy. He frequently seems to carry on entire conversations while out like a light. Just yesterday morning, as I left, he was saying, in a calm, collected tone, "Do you think it will hurt? Is it going to be painful?" He didn't appear scared or worried...almost clinical. I patted him on the head, told him to relax. He, then, asked for security to escort me out of the building.

By the way, as for my adorable wife, her reaction to my leaving is either total lack of recognition...it is the middle of the night, after all...or, as I say "I've got to go...see you later..." she sits bolt upright in bed and says, anxiously, "What's wrong? What's going on? Where are the life-boats?" She is so dramatic, that I fully expect to see Leonardo DiCaprio strapped to our garage and Celine Dion beating her chest and singing with all her might on the stoop. But, it isn't my heart that goes on, it's my Ford and it goes on to work.

As for me, I am told I don't talk in my sleep or act in a peculiar manner. I rarely remember even dreaming. As one of my sons has mentioned, at least I am consistent: I am every bit as dull and boring when asleep as I am when awake. Then, he opens one eye and snarls.