This boot is made for walking

As AM, Then FM quietly celebrates 17 years on the web, we may have arrived at a crossroads.

On this sunny Wisconsin afternoon, I’m sitting in my office for the first time in almost two months. Doctor’s orders. I’ve done almost nothing since having Achilles tendon surgery in early January. Stay off the foot. Only now — with this big walking boot having replaced the cast — am I getting a wee bit more mobile.

Unable to sit at my desk until now, I’ve been doing a lot on my phone.

Listening to music is one of those things.

My wife and I sit together in the living room. She has the TV on as background noise as she works. I’ll pop on the streaming shows put together by my friends Larry and Vincent, or stream my friend JB’s Saturday night ’70s show out of Madison, or stream WXPN out of Philadelphia, then turn the volume low and put the phone up to my ear so only I can hear it. Kind of a throwback to transistor radios late at night.

Digging for vintage baseball cards, that I’ve done on my phone, too.

Digging for records, though, is best done in person. It’s more fun. I still like doing it. I still like visiting record shops while traveling. But I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get back to that. Recovering from a torn Achilles can take up to a year, and I’m not exactly an athlete in his prime. I’ll be in the boot and on crutches for some time.

I did less record digging last year, in 2023, than in any year in recent memory, certainly less than in any year in the AM, Then FM era. Some of that was due to doctor’s orders to be less active in the immediate wake of detached retina and hip replacement surgeries. Some of that was already having found a lot of grail records. There isn’t much left on the wish list.

So I’m starting to wonder whether having a big record collection is becoming a burden. Having retired at the beginning of this year, I have more time to listen to records. Maybe I’ll go through them all and then begin moving them out.

One such record? You know the one. I found it three summers ago.

Nancy’s boot looks nicer than mine, but I’ll stick with mine for now.