My dog ain't dead, my wife ain't done and left me, and I have yet to drown my tears in beers

. . . so why can't I stop listening to country music?

On my drive down to Monterey, I started listening to country music (once I got past San Jose). One of the Great Knowns of life is:

When driving cross-country, one is guaranteed that at least one of the following genres of music will be readily available on the radio - if not on one station, on several: Country, Christian and Spanish

I did flip through those three genres for a while before settling on Country. I used to listen to Country music a lot - back in say...1980s and up through the early 1990s. So, I found this station playing songs I knew from back then, and it was like a trip down memory lane. It was great driving music (as the day was perfect for driving - crisp, sunny, blue skies) and I rambled down the road with the windows down, leaving a trail of honky-tonk in my dust.

And yet today, on my way to work, instead of my tuning in to my usual morning show or NPR, I kept the radio dialed to Country station (yes, there is one in SF!) and didn't bother to change it. Boggles the mind really.

Or maybe not . . . even though I am a self-proclaimed "city girl" I do love the Country, be it the South or the Mountains or yes, even the farm country of CA. I slow down in the country...people are friendlier...and the world just seems to move at a more manageable pace.

Now I don't plan on moving out of the city anytime in the near future (shoot - I'm not sure where "Opera Singer" meets "Country Living" - are you?) but I love to visit. I can't wait to get back to the Rockies for a bit...and would love to head back to NC to visit my friends still at the Lake and up in the Smokies. Beautiful country out there, indeed. And, well, there's also family in Louisiana, not to mention a myriad of friends scattered across the Southeast in general.

For now, though, I'll settle for my decades-old Garth Brooks cd's, a sunny day and a long open highway stretched out before me . . .