Rush

Rest In Peace my lifelong companion.

Sometime in the early nineties I began to listen to Rush Limbaugh. I know it was the early nineties because George H W Bush was president and I lived in Virginia. Nobody "turned me on" to Rush, I just happened to find him on my own searching for a weather report while working on a remodel job in the foothills of the Blue Ridge in northern Virginia.

This was also around the time of my life when I first started working for myself which afforded me a great deal of flexibility. Due to that freedom for the next twenty-five years or so Rush was my afternoon companion. Most weekdays I was on a job site, quite often by myself, especially in the beginning. I had always brought a radio to listen to, now at noon with my lunchbreak, usually brown bagged, I tuned and turned to Rush.

At some point, they began to manufacture very small radios that you could clip to your belt, and listen to with earbuds. Being a remodeler and carpenter I must have gone through a dozen of these over the years since they were either clipped to my belt or in my tool pouch while I worked and prone to being dropped or smashed. I actually got to the point where I would buy two at a time in order to have a spare. One of the main reasons I bought my first smart phone when the old flip open types was all I really needed and far more durable was so that I could listen to Rush on it.

When, after twenty-five years of self employment I finally went to work for someone else again, it was in a position where I basically set my own schedule. My schedule, barring a meeting I could not reschedule, was lunch at noon, usually sitting in my car or going to drive thru so I could listen to Rush. After lunch, on most days was when I visited job sites. I am sure that everyone thought that I scheduled my day this way so that I could do my paperwork in the morning, visit job sites in the afternoon and be back in my office to talk to crews as they came back in at the end of the work day. Truth be told I scheduled my day this way so that I could continue to eat lunch with Rush and listen to him as I traveled between job sites.

When I retired, one of the great benefits of finding UBER as a side gig was that I could continue to listen to Rush. If I had a passenger I just turned on my Car Alexa and listen through my ear bud, but most days i just turn off passengers at noon and just do UBER EAT deliveries.

Today, at noon, I turned my station from music to Rush, knowing it would probably a guest host. The announcer introduced Kathryn Limbaugh, and tears welled up in my eyes, because I knew what that meant. Rush was gone to return his gift to God.

Rush Limbaugh has been with me the better part of my life, made better because Rush was with me.

I will miss him.