Lacking spectacle
Terry has requested half a dozen “unspectacular things” about me, which shouldn’t be difficult, inasmuch as I tend toward the dull end of the spectrum anyway. Let’s see what comes up:
- The last time I owned a car with a stick shift was 1995; still, every time I approach an intersection, my right arm goes for the gear lever. Old habits die hard, if they die at all.
- I’ve had the same set of flatware (undistinguished stainless) for twenty-six years; I think I’ve lost one fork during that time.
- I have two functioning wristwatches: an early-80s clunker, which I wear, and an up-to-date model which checks in with an atomic time signal every morning, which I don’t wear because (1) it’s way too chunky and (2) despite its daily corrections it keeps really lousy time.
- I’ve bought four copies of the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds since its 1966 release; several other albums on my shelf are in their third incarnation.
- In the manner of a Doting Dad, I once schlepped the kids all the way to the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Unlike most such dads, I did this while the kids were in their twenties.
- I’ve had a Bluetooth headset for about a year. I think I’ve used it once.
To be any drabber, I’d have to have worked at Accountemps. Which, incidentally, I have.
Addendum: Someone on Tumblr has a photograph of a watch essentially identical to the one I’m wearing.
Further addendum: Which photo apparently I linked to last year sometime. So much for my memory.
sya »
28 September 2008 · 6:09 pm
I also own two wristwatches (the cheapo kinds that go bad after a year or two). But earlier this year, I’ve decided to stop wearing a watch altogether. And it’s been kind of liberating. I mean, if I really wanted to know the time, there are clocks everywhere else. And bar that, I could ask someone.
CGHill »
28 September 2008 · 6:41 pm
And if you carry a cell phone, it’s on there somewhere.
Still, as Chicago once asked, does anybody really know what time it is?
fillyjonk »
29 September 2008 · 7:18 am
Actually, it might be somewhat spectacular that you’ve resisted the BORG (the Bluetooth headset). I hate those things with a passion. I have three reasons:
1. As the xkcd comic recently used as a topic, I’ve gotten “fooled” into thinking someone was actually talking to me, when they were talking to their Invisible Friend.
2. Nearly getting bodily run over in the grocery store (or, more egregiously, in an antiques shop) by some Trophy Wife who is complaining to her BFF about her rich husband, and therefore fails to see the rest of humanity in front of her.
3. You can’t tell who the dangerous crazies are any more. It used to be “Talking to themselves” meant “You’d best avoid that person;” now, it is just as likely to mean they are selling short or telling their spouses which brand of spaghetti sauce to buy. And I’m unwilling to get close enough to a talking-to-themself type to check for the earpiece. Because there’s still a slight chance they might be one of the ones whose cell phone isn’t connected to anything, so to speak.
McGehee »
29 September 2008 · 9:16 am
I’ll avoid those things until they nano them so I can carry on a conversation over one without having to speak out loud.