Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be ...
It seemed only fitting that I was driving into an Ozarks sunset when I received word that Waylon Jennings had died.

Country music was a big, big part of my early years. My dad, man, he was into that country music, especially "The Outlaws" -- Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson. It was the noise that I woke up to every morning, and it was the songs I heard throughout the day, usually in my dad's way off-key hybrid West Texas-Midwestern drawl.

I was listening to KTTS -- the station I grew up with -- as I was coming back to Texas from Anytown after wrapping up Phase One of the Freelance Gig. In another life, I would have heard about Waylon Jennings' death on KTTS. It seemed right that that's where I heard about it in this life. Kind of a cosmic connection, if you will.