Captain’s Log 5,815
I am such a doof. I cannot even cruise around wearing iPhone earbuds while I walk. I have tried. Multi-tasking to music like that is almost impossible for me. I tried it a few years ago and ran right into a door. I tried it again last night and almost fell out of the house when I locked the patio door. Music takes ALL my attention. I also have to be really careful when I drive with music on in the car. I cannot listen to music if the traffic is difficult….only on the open road. I have no idea how people can actually RUN whilst music is blasting in their ears. I would fall off a cliff or slam into a bank of mailboxes. I just know it.
I did okay on the plane trip to Amsterdam because I was inside the plane sitting down. I could focus on movies. And I did. Seven movies in all. I dozed a bit but nothing that you would call real sleep. Movies made it work. Reading just didn’t cut it for me on that trip. Sometimes, I can read for hours, but not on this trip. I read from San Diego to Houston, but the lights on the trans-Atlantic flight didn’t focus on my seat very well. They were pretty much lighting the aisle. Plus, most of the plane was asleep. Watching movies was the most polite thing. I need reading light for my Kindle since it doesn’t have a back-light on the screen. So I couldn’t really see the Kindle OR the book I brought along. Thank goodness there were movies. 125 movies in all for picking and choosing plus a bunch of TV shows.
As long as this is the track of today’s post, I am going to carry on about earbuds. They don’t fit my ears! My ears aren’t big enough to hold them in! I push and twist and they fall out unless I hold my head really really REALLY still. It’s obnoxious. I have some buds that loop around my entire ear, but that only works if you remember to bring them. Note to self…..
Alien-looking devices that literally clamp the buds to your ears. Best solution for me.
Perhaps the best solution for someone who is a clumsy doofus with small ears is to just buy a ticket to a real symphony. Or maybe an Arlo Guthrie concert.
Life Aboard the HMS Pie Rat 
I have a set of the over-the-ear buds, too. Forget regular earbuds. The fat ones are easily 3x as big as my ear canal and entirely too small for the shell shape of my outer ear. The small ones are probably about 2x too large for my ear canal (the ones that are supposed to fit into your ear.) I listen to my mp3 player at night a lot. I have some binaural beats and some hypnosis pieces, plus some plain old beautiful music. For those I alternate between the over-the-ear or the fat old-fashioned kind. They’re not very comfy but I haven’t been able to find another alternative.
We have such struggles.
I, too, have those tiny ear canals, inability to multitask, and feeling that music demands my undivided attention. But I have never wanted to walk with music burrowing directly into my brain. I feel safer if I am aware of the sounds and sights around me.
I think that’s smart!
I have as yet to find earbuds that are comfortable and will stay put. I am amazed at people who live with those things in their ears. I love music though and still think it should be a shared experience rather than mainlined into the brain. I also think our phone conversations should be more private so I guess I’m old fashioned.
And I think that is fabulous! I am old fashioned too!
I use Bose over the ear noise canceling headphones on a plane. I don’t here babes or chatter.
I have been considering those.
Well, you must have inherited your mother’s genes when it comes to your ears! I have my father’s ears and let’s just say that earbuds would probably fall out of my ears too – because they’re way too big to hold anything! **Sigh**
Awwww! We will have to compare them!
Back in the day — before easily portable music — I walked along singing to myself. Usually it was show tunes, sung below the volume of the traffic, as I walked from Grand Central to 57th Street. Depending on the tunes, I usually made the walk in ten to fifteen minutes. 😎
I would trip. Trust me.
Sorry about your teeny tiny little ears….I have a problem with very narrow feet so most shoes don’t fit me. We all have our “issues” don’t we? LOL.
But reading usually works no matter how small your ears or how narrow your feet……and that’s GOOD!
Reading is the great equalizer!
You could always DANCE down the street. That would be cool!
I would break my fookin neck if I tried that!