Several years ago I bought a cheap MP3 player at a dollar store. It was one of those tiny little things you hook to your pocket and listen to through earbuds, and I thought I’d use it while working on the Lair which was still under construction.
I hated it. I hated being immersed in music to the point where I couldn’t hear anything at all that was going on around me. Eventually misplaced the thing and never really looked for it all that hard. I’d completely forgotten the incident until yesterday…
Basic life is filled with simple, repetitive and mindless tasks that go better with some tunes in the background. Washing laundry, for example, or kneading bread or laying tile. Inside the Lair I use the laptop to provide the tunes. In summer I do laundry with the laptop’s speakers on the ledge of the open window. But it’s February, and yesterday I didn’t want to evacuate all the Lair’s heat while I washed laundry in the weak sunshine. But I did want some tunes.
So I improvised…
That tablet somebody sent me a few weeks ago is a little large for a portable MP3 player, but I had sewed a cozy for it to keep it from getting all scratched up. I just tucked the flap under my belt behind my back, tucked the tablet into the resulting pouch, and put on the headphones.
Hated it. Here I was outside where anything can happen and I couldn’t hear a thing that was going on around me. Really, I’d forgotten how much I hate that. Took the whole thing right back off.
The tablet will still work for the purpose, though. I’ve got a portable speaker coming that I ordered just for that. It’ll work better than speakers in the window. I’m particularly thinking of a masonry job that’s been waiting all winter inside Ian’s cave, where I definitely want some music or an audio book or something besides nothing, you know? I spent several hours on that job late last summer before the J&H moving job superseded it, and it gets boring and oppressive in there without something else to listen to. The tablet and new speaker should help.
I hate to sound like your mother but… Before you attack that masonry job Joel, procure yourself some rubber gloves so you won’t have to post a picture of your red, cracked, & inflamed hands.
Yeah, too late. That was one of the delaying factors. I hurt my hands, then I hurt my back, then the J&H moving job came up, and the whole thing got bumped back to Spring. I’ve got a whole new box of gloves this time.
Just my two cents.I can’t stand working with headphones or earbuds.Call it lack of situational awareness,I’m constantly thinking that somebody’s sneaking up on me.
Use the speakers,so you can hear the evil coming.
I listen to podcasts when I’m working outside, I use one ear bud so the other ear is open and I can hear background noise.