Getting to love satellite radio.

Driving around in my new sports car, I'm getting to love satellite radio. (I chose XM over Sirius.) I've always preferred radio in my car. When I first got a nice CD player in my car, in 1999, I thought I'd listen to it all the time. But the truth is, I'd listen to talk radio, whatever was on -- advice about pets (though I have no pets), tips about health (though I abhor fussing over ailments and dietary particularities) ... whatever. I like the feeling of being tuned in and connected.

So I love the satellite radio in my new car, with all the 170 or so channels. It's fun finding my way around. I set it to scan among the news channels or maybe the rock channels. I use the preset buttons to get to my early favorites: the "Decades" channel where it's always the 60s, "Deep Tracks" where it's always classic rock (today, I was driving on Mineral Point, listening to Led Zeppelin, thinking how strange it was that so much intense emotion was expended over a line like "We're gonna go walkin' in the park every day"), "Fred" (alternative music of the 70s and 80s), "Bluesville," and "Soul Street."

I'm going to gradually collect my favorites and dedicate my preset buttons, but today, I enjoyed clicking through the channels, happening upon what amused me. I don't normally care about country music but I liked "Hank's Place," the traditional cowboy-style channel, and "Bluegrass Junction," the bluegrass channel. And I see there's "The Village," where Bob Dylan resides in amongst the country offerings. I'll have to check that out. And I haven't begun to explore all the talk channels. Today, I happened upon a channel that played soundtracks from movies: they were playing dialogue from "The Great Escape."

How fun to see what's on the radio!