Keeler Reflects on Three Full Weeks on WIBX

Today is Friday, February 1st.  It's 9 pm and I'm sitting in my den with ice on my back as my wife watches yet another episode of Mob Wives.  I've now completed three weeks as the morning host on WIBX and I guess I'm in the mood for a little reflection.

I seem to have made it through those difficult early days of learning the WIBX format and mastering the equipment and software and I'm almost to the point where being 'new' can no longer be used as an excuse for not getting something done.

Interestingly, I've been suffering from severe back pain since I started on-air and while the pain has certainly served as a distraction, I've chosen to look at it all from a positive vantage point.   Instead of the pain making it difficult for me to concentrate on the new show, I've decided that the pain has taken my mind off all of the annoying insecurities and distractions of starting a new job.

Instead of hyper-focusing on the fact that I still don't know when the Rush Limbaugh report starts, I've been thinking about the sciatic nerve pain shooting down my leg.

Instead of thinking about the fact that on my first day the computer went haywire and there was more silence on-air than you normally hear in the New Hartford Public Library, I was focusing clearly on the continuous cramp and 'charlie horse' type pain shooting into my right leg.

And instead of thinking about the old lady who called up on my second day and told me to tell the new guy (me) that he was terrible and he should stop whining about his back, I've been focusing on... uh, my back.

I know it might seem like a really strange reach; but, maybe my back problem has really served a purpose over the last three weeks.

When I was a kid, I remember telling my father that my stomach hurt and he punched me in the shoulder and said, "Now you're not thinking about your stomach."

Once again, my father was right.