I’m sure you’ve heard that Johnny Carson passed away today. I found this to be sad news, because I know how influential he was on so many of the people that I find funny on TV and the big screen today. I also have a few memories of his show that are short memories, but are from a time that I don’t remember a lot from.

As a very young 5 or 6 year old, staying up past my bedtime was always a great thing. Part of what I can remember from those rare occasions was seeing the Johnny Carson Tonight Show. On one occasion, I can actually recall my father trying to teach me how to tie my shoelaces, and Johnny Carson was on TV. I was having trouble paying attention to my Dad’s instructions because I wanted to watch Johnny Carson. I don’t know why that memory, along with the memory of watching the show Doctor Who with my Dad late at night, has stuck in my mind for such a long time, while so few other things have.

The fact that Johnny Carson had such a memorable impact on me at a young age clearly indicates to me that I missed out on something truly great. I was lucky to catch the short glimpses of his show that I did, though. I look forward to whatever tribute shows Leno and Letterman are preparing, and the clips they’ll be showing on TV in the coming weeks.

I was a big fan of Late Night shows for a long time, in high school I watched David Letterman a lot. I think it’s part of that childhood desire to stay up past my bedtime that made late night shows so attractive. As a teenager, I’d watch Letterman on school nights in my bedroom, and I would have to watch it with the TV very quiet, because I would have gotten in trouble if I was caught still up that late. I think my Mom caught me one time, actually, and I almost had the TV in my bedroom taken away completely. She always had really good hearing, it was tough to get away with. Sorry Mom.

As I started to stay up later, I became a big fan of Conan O’Brein, and watched him a lot through college. Lately, I haven’t been watching much late night TV, mostly because I think we’re ready for something new. I never really cared for Leno, Letterman’s days are up in my opinion, and Conan will be the new star if moved up to the hour earlier time slot. It’s just on too late for me, when I need to be up and full of energy so early in the morning for my job.

As for me, my weekend was swell. I was pleased to find out that I really wasn’t having any problems with the car after all. Was just really low on power steering fluid, and I had a lot of ice in my wheels. Pretty minor stuff, didn’t have to spend a dime, fortunately. I’m glad my brother came down to look at it. I’d be willing to bet that if I brought it to a repair shop and said “I think the wheel bearings are bad” they would have agreed, even though they weren’t, and replaced them anyway. So that’s good news.

The rest of the weekend we pretty much just watched movies and stayed in. We got a lot of snow Friday night, about 7-9 inches. Getting out of the parking lot Saturday was an interesting experience. It’s all finally cleaned up though, and we finally have a nice white blanket of snow around here instead of brown grass. It sounds like the east coast got hit with the same storm, but they got hit with it a little bit worse. Boston got about two feet, which I can’t imagine. Our almost one foot was pretty bad. It took me two hours to get home! It took them two days to get it all cleaned up, and we’re supposed to be experienced at this here.

I have a feeling that we have a long, cold winter ahead. See you next time.