Just about everyone worries about being late for work or school, now and then. Well, not so much in my family because, as I've mentioned before in this space, they operate under PST or Philps Standard Time, Philps being my wife's maiden name. There always seems to be some extenuating circumstance that makes being a little late a good thing: "See, if we'd been on time, we'd have been in that fender-bender with the HumVee!" But, for me, being late for work has been a concern for the last 18 years or so, due in large part to the hours being a little topsy-turvy. (See how old, I am? I use the word topsy-turvy. I also, blushingly, refer to my t-shirts as undergarments.) When I get to work, I go directly to the basement of the building where the weather center is located. (The one high-tech piece of weather equipment we don't have is a window...which may explain a lot of my forecasts.) I go about my business and may not really see another living human being until about a half hour before the program starts. As great as this lack of contact with me is for my co-workers, it does mean that my absence would go unnoticed until very late in the game. I've voiced this concern, at times, to the producers but they see my potential "missing" status as a positive opportunity. I worry because I know, if I miss a morning, they, meaning the producers and viewers, will quickly come to the realization that "nobody" doing the weather is more personable, watchable and accurate than me doing the weather.

I am probably asking for trouble from my alarm clocks, but I've really only had one close call, as far as being late for FirstNews, in 18-plus years. It was back in February of 1989. Maria Antonia and I were celebrating the one year anniversary of the show with a week of special guests and features. The big finish, on Friday, was a broadcast from the offices of Shook, Hardy and Bacon at One Kansas City Place. The view of the town was spectacular. This was back when the show went on the air at 6:30 a.m. Although that seems like such a late starting time, now, there were times Maria and I wondered if anyone was actually out there. (Soon the start time was moved to 6:00 a.m. then 5:30, now 5:00. When we started going on at five in the morning, my dad asked me if we were trying to reach the "parents-with-infants and cat-burglar demographic". I have no doubt that one of these days we will be starting FirstNews as soon as Lara and Larry sign off at 10:35 p.m. Maybe we could actually have the morning and evening anchor teams thumb wrestle or something for control of the desk!)

Well, as I mentioned, the show started at 6:30 a.m. For some reason I did not hear the three alarms or I turned them off without waking up. Also, we had very little kids at the time and this must have that rare occasion that everyone had actually slept in their own beds for the whole night. In any case, I didn't wake up until 6:07. I will remember that time, in red, accusatory numbers on the digital clock for the rest of my life. I looked at the numbers...rubbed my eyes...quickly went through the days of the week to see if it was a Saturday or Sunday...then, bolted from the bed. I grabbed some clothes and hustled out to the car, dressing as I moved. At the time, we lived about ten minutes from the station. I arrived at 6:19, only to remember that the show was on location that day...a couple blocks down the street. I stole some maps from Bryan Busby's night-before weather presentation...luckily, there was nothing new in the forecast...and ran back out the door and down the street, tore into the One KC, jumped on the elevator and walked out to the set around 6:28. Maria mentioned that she'd called down to the weather center before she'd headed out but I didn't answer so she thought I was probably already gone. Our legendary camera-operator, Betty Cam, growled that she figured I was goofing off somewhere, then she settled in behind the camera with one of her frisky little romance novels which she read during my weathercasts.

Interestingly, although my clothes were disheveled and my forecast was totally off the top of my head with major help from Busby's maps, no one seemed to notice. Maybe that means I did a great job covering up my slumber blunder. (WARNING: Do not attempt to say "slumber blunder" three times fast as severe tongue sprain may occur. Also, the phrase itself, is actually illegal in seven states so be careful.) Or, more likely, all my weather forecasts look thrown together and I always look half-baked so this particular morning didn't stand out! (I just noticed that I have used parentheses and italics a lot in this story. I think that indicates that the story is pretty pathetic and I am trying to dress it up (you know, make it more interesting) than it really (Really) deserves. Oh OH NOW I HAVE FOUND THE BOLD KEY...SO WATCH OUT!!!)

If you are wondering if I was late one morning this week and that's why I got to thinking about this, nope...not me. Someone in the FirstNews family was a little on the slow side one day this week but I'd never rat him or her out. Even though, he or she already talked about it on the air. I just don't think it would be right for me to mention a name here and I told Johnny Rowlands that very thing. Oops. Well, what goes around comes around so I may have just jinxed myself. Tune in next week. If you notice that all the maps are the same as the night before and my suit-jacket is on backwards, you'll know that Mr. Sandman hit me in the head with a ball peen hammer.