Holiday Cheer On The 134

I like Christmas music more the older I get. Not that I ever didn't like it, but I think I feel the holiday spirit better and deeper now than I used to. Maybe it's part of getting older, maybe it's just my Grinchy heart growing three sizes, who knows? A few years back it wouldn't have been my thing, but I'm really digging the LA station that's now all-Christmas, all the time. When I'm in the truck I'm switching from NPR to Jingle Bells, and I'm only too happy to do it.
   It's joy and happiness and gratitude and exuberance and anticipation all at the same time. Listening makes me smile and calms me down.
   And sometimes cool things happen.
   Like tonight. I was putting in a guest appearance at an improv class I used to take, and since it's unseasonably warm in LA right now I took the hot rod. Top down, natch.
   So I'm coming back from Studio City - where the class meets - still with the top down and with Christmas music playing on the radio. As I'm leaving Glendale and coming up the hill on the 134 before Eagle Rock 'O Holy Night' comes on. This part of the highway is out of any city and there are no street lights as the road rises over the hills. Which means, come to find out, it's one of the few parts of LA where you can actually see stars overhead. And since I had the top down on the hot rod I could just look up and take it all in.
   Sublime. On the LA freeway, top down, stars twinkling above me. 'Hear the angels' voices' indeed.
   Like most such moments it only lasted a short time, long enough for me to travel the four miles or so between the 2 and the 210. And then the lights of Pasadena took over and the stars washed out to the regular black/gray shroud. But I'll carry that experience with me, something to cling to when things turn South.
   Merry Christmas, here's hoping this isn't the last cool thing that happens this season.