‘Til You Can’t

| Arthur Wyman

I know. I promised to get back to at least a somewhat regular routine of writing blog posts.

Life had other plans.

The amount of work I needed to do started once again to slowly increase. And then a new weekly program started in October of last year, of which I was tasked to produce. It was a one hour sports interview show, and was a great listen, even if you weren’t a sports talk fan, because the show was focused on people and memories.

Unfortunately, it also quickly became a full time job unto itself, on top of my regular full time workload.

Those of you who know me well know that when I do anything, I do it right.

But obviously, working way too many hours with no rest and very little sleep was affecting my health. And after my health scare back in 2020 (Hard Workin’ Man and I Called Mama) I knew that I was on a path that I had to find a way off of.

So last Tuesday was my last day on the radio in Escanaba. I will miss my co-workers, I will miss the cast of regulars who joined me on the air, and I especially will miss my listeners who welcomed me into their homes, work, businesses, cars and lives over the past three and a half years.

I love you all.

The next day, I was up at my regular time of 3:30 in the morning. I grabbed my laptop bag and the suitcase I’d packed the night before, and headed west three and a half hours to my new radio home.

WAVE 100.5
WAVE 100.5
I’ll be on the air doing mornings on Wave 100.5 in Wausau, Wisconsin. Many of you will smile at that, as I had worked at a station in Maine that called itself the Wave. There are no oceans here in Wausau, of course, but we do have a river that splits the city in two. I will also be the Operations Manager for this station group.

For my new radio family, please be patient as I learn a completely new (to me) computer system. And I’ll be out doing a remote this coming weekend, which will be my first time out and about to be able to meet with you. And there will be many more to come. I’m looking forward to them all.

Meanwhile… one last thing.

My youngest granddaughter, Julianna, has just turned all of a year and three quarters old. And she has just been diagnosed with Leukemia.

If you could, please add her to your prayers. Thanks.

And if you’d like to help, her Aunt has set up a GoFundMe page to help with expenses. I’ve posted a link below.

Daughters

| Arthur Wyman

Just a little more than three weeks after returning from finally being able to travel to see family back in New England, I got a text message from our youngest daughter.

It was short and out of the blue, just like many of her text messages to me are.

Just two lines, telling me that she was getting married, and the date and time.

No location, and it was happening in about three weeks.

Yep. That’s my girl!

So this started a quick scramble to see if timing would work out with both our work schedules to allow Mom and Dad to attend, starting with the obvious question.

Where?

Driving to the northern tip of Maine was quickly ruled out, partly because our more comfortable on long trips minivan needed some repair work, but mostly because Mom wouldn’t get back in time for her first day back at work.

So, we flew back this time, leaving early Friday morning, with the wedding on Sunday afternoon and our return flight early Monday morning.

Now, with the exception of a nine-hour layover in Detroit with no Wi-Fi (it was down every time I tried to use it) and having to change terminals in both Detroit and Newark, it was an almost uneventful trip to Presque Isle. Mom and I based ourselves near the airport, which had us only about an hours drive to Madawaska.

Jeff and Nicole
Jeff and Nicole
We all met up for dinner Saturday evening in Madawaska. It was the first time we had met his parents, and the evening went very well.

Then on Sunday, we all gathered again, this time in Madawaska Four Corners Park, as Jeff and Nicole said “I do”.

After hanging out in the park for a little while, we all headed to the reception dinner and had a great time, until it was finally time to head back to our motel.

Now, as for our flights back to Michigan, that became interesting, to say the least.

Let’s just say, the words you don’t want to hear when you are checking in at the airport terminal are “Oh! So YOU’RE  the ones!”

Thanks to Hurricane Henri and the mess it was causing in the New York/New Jersey area, and the fact that we were changing airlines in Newark, we had boarding passes to get to Newark but not for the rest of the trip.

Being the adventurous types that we are, we flew on to Newark anyway, knowing that there were multiple options available from Newark to get us home.

We ended up on both our scheduled flights back.

And now, both our daughters are married.