Guest Post

I do have a blog post today, but it's not here!

Since it is Leap Day today, I guest-posted on a different blog. 

I mean, the world is going mad anyway.  Why not join in?

Check it out here:  thehusblog.com.

Thanks!

It's all about context

Why is it that everything related to car maintenance sounds dirty?

I give you the following dialogue, which could either have been uttered by me when I dropped my car off this morning for routine maintenance, or perhaps come from a 70s blue movie.  You decide.

"I need a lube job."

"You've gotta pull out the dipstick to check the oil."

"Oh, I definitely need my tires rotated.  Check the tread on those bad boys."

"That's a dirty filter.  Better replace it."

"We'll take it on a test drive, don't you worry."

Okay, I may be exaggerating slightly.  But still. 

Don't get me started on plumbers.

Rinse and Repeat

You know how some people knit or craft to keep their hands occupied so they can think?  I do that with music.

More specifically, if I am trying to focus at work, or if I want to concentrate and want to think something through – typically in the car – I will put a song on repeat.  And listen to it over.

And over.

And over.

And … well, you get the point. 

It somehow takes a part of my brain -- the toddler, “ooh shiny,” easily-distracted part of my brain -- and gives it a toy.  ‘Here, play with this while the grown-ups talk.’

This allows me to go into work-trance, or thought-trance, and work through whatever it is.

You want examples?  Once I drove home from my parents’ house to mine (roughly 8 hours) listening to one track of one cd.  For one month at work, two songs sustained me through a killer project.  Yes, two songs and two songs only for four weeks, 8 hours a day (minus meetings, lunches and bathroom breaks).

Okay, yes, and sometimes I just do it because I like the song.  It happens, people!

I’m given to understand most people don’t do this.  Perhaps it is one of the areas in my life that I’m OCD.  I don’t know.  Frankly, I don’t care.  It doesn’t affect anyone else, and it helps me concentrate.  So that’s all for the better.