6-24-2008
EMAIL: joe.cicero@citcomm.com

Back to the daily bump and grind eh? Seriously though, being on
the radio pales in comparison to doing what I did years ago getting
up and actually working my butt off! I used to drive a delivery
truck for a tool company. Think, Home Depot on Wheels and drive
to job sites in downtown Chicago at all hours of the day including
Lower Wacker Drive. Lower Wacker used to be (kind of still is) a
big homeless shelter until they started to put barriers and fences
up for homeless people to move on out. The heat from the high rise
buildings, including the Sears Tower, would keep them warm. Many
a times you'd see bunches of people sleeping under those vents to
stay warm.

I always enjoy the fact that I was one of the people that had been
to the very bottom and top of the Sears Tower. Their loading dock
was massive and they ran it like a well oiled machine. Sometimes I
had to park outside to wait for an opening and homeless people
would try to get you to give them money, food, anything!















Lower Wacker drive is actually prominently featured in the
upcoming Batman flick which I cannot wait to see!

As much as I don't miss it I really do. It was actually enjoyable to
deliver to job sites for months and months and see stuff transform
into huge offices and buildings too. From piles of dirt in the suburbs
to literally, million square foot warehouses.

It is also the reason I got into radio. Listening to guys like Steve
Dahl, Pete McMurray, Kevin Matthews, Johnny B, Wendy Snyder
and Bill Leff, Howard Stern, Mike North and Dan Jiggets, Phil
Hendrie, and sooooooooo many more. I'd be on the road for 8-10
hours a day going, "I can do this like these guys!" and here I am
trying to make something of myself.

Not sure why I'm telling you this. Maybe cause I feel good about
what Tammy and I have accomplished here in Colorado Springs in
a short time. I feel like we have a great show going and the phone
calls and emails we get on a regular basis back us up. So, THANK
YOU for keeping me from driving a delivery truck. :) There are a
lot of factors that are hard to predict but I think that we have such
a great thing going that others struggle with getting done.

Did I ever tell you about my chicken delivery days? LOL! I dropped
out of school at 17 as a junior. Eventually got my G.E.D. and
graduated from college...but, as a dropout I would deliver chicken
and other stuff for Corky's Catering in Addison, IL. Decent money
but the places they sent me could be pretty bad. Sometimes I'd end
up on the South Side of Chicago in the projects waiting for an
elevator or taking stairs that would make me fear for my life.
These are some of the toughest neighborhoods around and I'm
probably lucky that I didn't ever get robbed or at the least beat up!
Thank you for keeping me from doing that too!! Ha.

I also painted for College Pro Painters when I dropped out. How
funny is that? High School dropout paints with College kids? It paid
pretty decent and I learned a lot doing it too.

Then there was the two weeks of telemarketing - hated it! Just
brutal seriously. We'd call low income neighborhoods and try to get
some inspector out to see if they needed waterproofing in their
basement which I can only imagine they ALWAYS did. Felt wrong
and I'm glad I stunk at it. Two weeks, one check, done.

Then of course all of the different pizza places. The highlight was a
two hour stint after I quit some place cause they paid me crap and
the guy wanted me to scrub all of these coolers down and wash
dishers. Wel, I was a veteran of the business and was above that
(pompous ass eh?) and he was like do it and I was like NO I QUIT.
LOL. Two hours and I actually had the gnads to ask him for my pay.
LOL! He didn't pay me. Imagine that?

For awhile I "moved" cars for a guy. Not as in stolen cars but cars
that were repo'd by the bank or being sold at auction. In Chicago
there are two huge auction lots. One in the city and then one south
of the city. We would go back and forth or go to car dealerships,
mechanics, tow yards, wherever to do it. Most of the thrill of doing
this was we would be driving some SWEET CARS! Did it with a
bunch of my friends which made it more fun. We'd get $10 to $15
for driving one car and do maybe three or four cars a night. Not bad
though sometimes we didn't get paid and that was a problem.  The
nicest car I drove was a Corvette and it was the fastest that I ever
drove in my life too. Needless to say the guy I was working for was
not happy at the speed. Very FAST!!! Ha.

Another guy I drove with took a Camaro and hit 135MPH on the
highway. Needless to say I was not happy with HIM! Maybe I was
jealous.

My point in all of this is THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! LOL! I don't
want to "move" cars anymore! I'll take a nice car but not just to an
auction yard at 1am.

BEFORE I WRAP UP... KELLY FINALLY BLOGGED! CHECK IT OUT!

Oh, and I updated the podcast section too. A bunch of new material
at the bottom of the playlist when you click on Podcast.

FINALLY...George Carlin. A genius and I loved his comedy so much!
I have a list of comedians I want to see that are legends and had
the chance to see him in Vegas about eight years ago. It was an
honor and he made you use your brain in order to laugh! Classic.

This bit is one of those where he says stuff people outside of him
would never say! (WARNING: SOME SWEARING!)