Photo credit: Arizona Master Naturalist Blog
One of the things I’ve discovered since moving to Arizona is that in the summertime, pretty much the whole population of the Phoenix metro area shifts over to “bat hours.” It’s just too darned hot in the middle of the day to be outside doing heavy work, so you find that it’s much better to get started at 5:00 am or earlier so you can knock off earlier and retreat in to the coolness of modern HVAC.
In broadcasting, of course, we work pretty much on a 24×7 schedule anyway, so early mornings and overnights aren’t anything new. If you do these kinds of hours all the time, you get used to it somewhat. The killer is when you pull a couple of very early mornings or overnights and then go back to your normal schedule. It’s more painful when you get old like me. The last two mornings, we’ve been pulling out several large satellite antennas in order to make room for one grit-biggo single satellite antenna. It’s meant a 3:30 am wakeup for me each day. Combine that with the Labor Day shortened week and … well, I really appreciate the triple espresso this morning.
