Painter Girl

My Ipod Seems To Be Controlling My Life!

I recently acquired an Ipod Shuffle.  Now, I am not one for a lot of new high tech products and up until now could only answer "What Ipod?", when asked "What's in your Ipod?" 

Because this is all still quite new to me, it's taking me a bit to get the whole system running smoothly.  First, I had to get the music on the this little thing.  The first few days, I did not have nearly enough music on there to get me through the work day, so I listened to the same series of songs a few more times than I would have liked.  After a few days of this, I added more.  Then... I discovered Podcasts.  So I added some of those.  Of course, adding all this takes some time!  I'd try to do it at night, but you know how that goes.  When you're at work, you have the best of intentions of getting x,y, and z done when you get home.  Then, you get home later than you had hoped, other priorities need to be attended to, and by the time you crawl into bed, you're exhausted with no new music/Podcasts on the damn Ipod for the next day!  When that scenario would happen, I'd try to add a few things in the a.m. before I left for work.  Of course, it took longer than I thought to download and I'd then be late for work.  One day last week, not only was I running very late for work due to this Ipod, when I finally got to work and plugged myself in... my battery was not charged so I could not even listen to anything!

This week I am trying something new and put a lot on this Ipod over the weekend.  Hopefully, there will be sufficient content/context to keep me entertained through Friday!  I really didn't think I would use the Ipod all day while I worked, but since I am on this job alone most of the time, it's been great!  I decided that a few days of a solid mix of music was fun, but I really should be using these hours a little more productively.  I have now subscribed to several NPR podcasts for variety and will add some books and perhaps try to learn Italian over the next few months.  I think I'm going to like this little Ipod once I get a good system down.  I love that it is sooo small.  Only about an inch square.  I clip it onto the side of my bib overalls and run the wires under the bib so they are not hanging down in my paint or catching on my ladder. 

The Quiet of Working Alone

Sometimes I absolutely love working alone on a job site, with no one else in the house or building.  Working uninterrupted, I get a lot done.  I normally bring a radio, but the last one I was using broke, so I've had no music to listen to lately.  Today I decided that I should get some books on tape and start listening to those while I work.  I like listening to music too, so either way, I need to buy another radio/tape deck.  When the homeowner is there, I listen to whatever music they put on, but when they are not there, I don't like to fool with their equipment. It's fun to see what type of music my clients listen too.  One time I had a client who practiced the piano every afternoon and it was as if I was being treated to a private concert! She was very good and it was truly a joy to listen to her practice session. Another client had a wonderful CD collection of Italian operas that she played for me each day!