Mike and Music

I used to be a speed demon who regularly drove well above the speed limit.  My new commute has changed that.  In an effort to be more cost-conscious, I try to keep my lead foot off the gas, but even more than that is my new zen-like attitude.

While cars zip past me at 80+ miles an hour, I chug away at no more than 75 mph (usually more like 70) and laugh at the frenzied drivers.  “Where are you going so fast,” I wonder.  After all, I’m heading to work and there’s no reason to rush to get there!  I assume the same is true for the other drivers; they just haven’t had my epiphany yet.

Because of my newfound patience, I’m getting more than 35 mpg and I never have to worry about getting pulled over.  That has taken some getting used to.  I see a cop or a CHP officer and immeditely take my foot off the gas (and often put my foot on the brake), then I realize I don’t have to do anything because I’m not driving at an excessive speed!  My blood pressure is much lower during my commute, too, which is more important, even, than gas mileage and speeding tickets.

I never thought 3 hours a day in the car would make me a calmer person, but here I am.

I have just over 3,000 songs in my iPod, and listen to it all the time.  I use it in the car (through an FM transmitter thing) and at my desk (through a dock with speakers), so it gets a lot of play each day.  I almost always play it on shuffle, listening to random song after random song, so one minute it will be Mozart and the next minute it will be Snoop Dogg, followed by Nine Inch Nails, then by the Mamas and the Papas.

When you listen to the iPod on shuffle, it will list each track a X of X, like song 64 of 3038.  I’ve been really curious to know what happens when you get to the end– once song 3038 or 3038 is over.  Well, last week I noticed that I was up to song 2700-something of my music library and that if I was careful and didn’t reset my iPod (no docking it, no resetting it, no taking it off of shuffle), so I vowed to make it happen.  And I did!  Friday morning, as I drove to work, I got to the last track, and then…

It took me back to the main menu.  I picked a new song to start on and I was back to song 1 of 3038.

It was sooooo anticlimactic!  But now I know.

If you’re coming to our blog from Heather Drive (heatherdrive.blogspot.com), welcome!  I started reading Road to the Aisle and got totally hooked and now follow Heather Drive and love it.  I’ve never met Heather, and probably never will, but I enjoy following her life and looking at pictures of her cute dog and gorgeous family!

And I also love “Saved by the Bell.”

(For those of you who are regular mikeandmusic.com readers, I should explain that Heather asked readers of her blog a “Saved by the Bell”-related question and I answered first and answered correctly, causing her to post a link to our humble site.)

When I was growing up, I got home from school at 3 p.m. each day.  My afternoon routine was to call my mom to tell her I was home, make a snack, and then settling down in front of the t.v.  Some kids do after school sports, other kids have hobbies.  I watched syndicated sitcoms, including– no, especially!– SBTB.

There was a time that I knew A LOT of SBTB trivia and had a lot of the lines memorized.  Not so much anymore.  But I got a big kick out of the Jimmy Fallon interview with Zack Morris (go to YouTube if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and am hoping the SBTB reunion moves forward.  Friends forever!

Last night, Music and I attended the annual San Diego County Fair media party. The highlight of this event is the free food provided to the members of the 4th estate.

In leiu of photos (sorry), I present you a tally of what we were able to consume:

Mike:

1 “Graham Ledger special” Pasta pocket - store bought pasta in a store bought sauce, inserted into a hollowed-out store bought roll. Graham Ledger and I then had to have an awkward conversation about how we both worked at KFMB, and how he didn’t remember me.

1 fried mini platter: 1 huge fried zucchini strip, several fried cheese curds, and 1 huge onion ring

2 Dos Equis beers

1 mini cupcake

1 mini corndog

3 deep fried chicken wings in hot sauce

1 deep fried smore

1 kabob platter: chicken kabob with bell peppers & onions, pita, hummus, tabuli

1 Tecate

another smore (had to introduce Marcella and Tony to them… didn’t want things to be awkward when they ate it, so I had one too)

1 home-made potato chips w/ bacon-cheese

another Tecate

Music:

1 Graham Ledger special

1 Fried mini-platter

1 mini corndog

4 mini lemonaides

1 mini-cupcake

1 kabob platter

apples with carmel sauce nuts and whipped cream

1 ear of corn

It was all delicious, although I did have a thin layer of lard on my pillow this morning. Some of it must have oozed off, overnight!

Mike and I found out today that one of our neighbors passed away about a month ago.  Mary, the woman who lived on the corner from us, had been very sick for months.  I talked to her once when she was in the hospital, and when we heard she was coming home, we decorated her house with some balloons and a “welcome home” sign.  She was home for a day or so and then had to go back to the hospital.  Then life got really busy for us and we never had time to go to see her in the hospital or even to check in to see if she’d been sent home yet.  Each week, I’ve thought to myself, “I need to make the time to see how Mary is doing,” and then I haven’t done it.

Well, today Mike talked to someone who broke the news about Mary’s passing.  I wasn’t especially fond of her when we met, but she grew on me, and we actually came to be friends.  I feel terribly that I didn’t say goodbye and that I wasn’t able to pay my respects at her funeral.  Just goes to show that one should always make time for hellos and goodbyes and thank yous– and not only when people are sick!