Yesterday morning I drove my next-door neighbors to the airport for a spring break trip to California. When we were about half way to the airport, the youngest daughter (she’s five) wailed that she hadn’t downloaded any music to her pad. The older daughter started to chime in as well. Dad quickly let them know that he had downloaded good playlists to their pads.
I wouldn’t even have known what most of the previous paragraph meant when I was the girls’ ages. Both their Mom and Dad are music teachers, so I suppose it’s not too surprising that everybody has to have a playlist for a 4-hour flight. When they get back, maybe I’ll ask the girls about what Dad had downloaded for them.
I like music but I can’t call myself an aficionada – I rarely know the names of songs and even if I recognize the music, I’m usually stumped about the composer. Or the band. So while I know that my phone could play music if I wanted, I don’t have anything set up and I don’t have any ear buds or headphones. When I’m on the plane, it’s either sleeping or reading for me. In fact, I almost always take too much reading material on the plane – except for the one time I had a big hard cover from the library in my carry on bag (All the Light You Cannot See) and I plowed through the entire book in between London and Minneapolis! Luckily by the time I finished the book, we were just about to land so I wasn’t tortured by too much “non-reading” time.
How do you keep yourself entertained when you fly/drive/train/covered wagon?
Trail Baboon 
I almost never listen to the radio anymore. My quotidian accompaniment to driving around is the playlist I keep on my phone, connected via bluetooth to the car stereo. There are well over 1000 songs on the playlist and it’s about as eclectic and idiosyncratic as it could be— Jimmie Rodgers, Ukelele Ike, lots of gypsy jazz, the Ink Spots, tangos, fado, bluegrass, Chet Baker, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, the McGarrigle Sisters, Scottish accordion music, sambas, Burt Jansch, Bonnie Raitt, Duke Ellington, various French and Spanish language artists, etc.
When we are driving on extended car trips we tend to listen to podcasts—Radiolab, This American Life, Spilled Milk, or one of Robin’s fiber-art related shows. When I am walking at the gym I listen to other podcasts, like Atlas Obscura, Footnoting History, Ologies, Gastropod, Cautionary Tales.
The last couple of times I’ve flown I either slept or watched a movie.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Flying: either read, do some writing, or doze.
Driving: Public radio if in range, otherwise audiobooks.
Haven’t taken a train of any sort since we lived in Chicagoland-_Metra to downtown from our place was about an hour. I might have read occasionally.
Covered wagon? Hmmm, can’t remember. 😉
Chris in Owatonna
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sherrilee- harking back to a recent Trail comment, this etymology of chewing the cud:
https://blog.oup.com/2024/03/chewing-the-cud-and-ruminating-on-word-origins/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good grief, who would have thought there’d be so much verbiage to describe a little three-letter word like that. And I love that cud is somehow related to bitumen. The caption under the bitumen picture made me laugh!
LikeLike
Anatoly Liberman is so ridiculously erudite it makes me laugh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
oops, Lieberman.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Most recently, it’s been like this:
LikeLiked by 2 people
Not to mention that, on a covered wagon, one often has to walk along side it, eliminating all other activities.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I guess I’m about to find out.
Most of my travel to date has been by car, with me being the driver. My first overseas flight ever will be April 24. I was considering books but they’re heavy, so I started an Audible subscription and got myself a pair of headphones. This won’t help my hands though – they like to be busy. I don’t know if knitting needles are allowed on the plane, or crochet hooks. I doubt scissors are allowed so I have a tiny cutting tool. I can use yarn scraps for stitch markers instead of the little pins. The sharpest thing will be knitting needles and I can put all that in a carry-on. I can knit or crochet for hours while listening to a book. I need to try to sleep though. We’re arriving in Dublin at around 0830 their time. We plan to get our car and drive to our lodging on the west coast near the Cliffs of Moher. We will do some sight-seeing on the way, pick up some groceries and necessities, stop to eat and walk around, and hopefully not be zombies.
I love reading, and I prefer a book. I’ve learned though, that keeping my hands busy with a project while listening to something good is soothing for me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I knit on planes with knitting needles and have not had them taken away.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Jacque
LikeLike
Thanks!
~Krista
LikeLike
Rise and shine, Baboons,
Audiobooks and podcasts keep me happy and entertained. Sometimes people watching is a hoot as well.
OT–everything else.
I have spent the morning getting Phoebe signed up for doggie day care so I can go run errands and do what needs doing for Lou. She is missing Lou a lot. (Me too)
My son and I carefully chose a memory care cell phone for Lou. It is a disaster of dysfunction. That sucked up a lot of time. Lou is settling into the hospital room, using the hospital room phone, which is actually easiest for him. Once he started sleeping better, his memory and cognition cleared. However, his legs remain weak and wobbly which I think will become a serious neuro issue as it is further defined. I am awaiting responses from rehab facilities which will determine the next moves. Off to errands. I have to remember to buy dog food.
LikeLiked by 2 people
OT-It is currently 66° here. Snow is predicted Wednesday night through Friday, then over thev weekend we are predicted to get at least another 6 inches of snow. This weather is confusing.
LikeLiked by 3 people
And all the up and down of the weather is making my bursitis flare. It hurts!
LikeLiked by 2 people
People watching.
Many times while driving I have vocalized “What the f…is your problem?!
Then I consider what IS their problem. Is there a medical emergency? Are they late for a court hearing? Does their car need brake testing? Are they a hostage being driven to drive like a lunatic?
While on a plane, I do the same thing and imagine my fellow travelers stories.
How many times have you been married?
Are you going to make millions with this next business arrangement?
LikeLiked by 3 people
I love people watching.
LikeLiked by 2 people
We are not peeping Tommies.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yes to the people watching! and you come up with rather insightful questions, Wes.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I stream MPR classical all day at work from my personal computer and a wifi sound bar. When I drive, I listen to XM radio classical channel until I hit Valley City, ND, when I can pick up MPR.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My previous two cars had CD players, which was nice for audiobooks. I listened to many good stories that way.
The latest car doesn’t have a CD player in the dash. It does have a DVD player, which can be used to play audio CD’s, but it is mounted on the ceiling over the back seats, not a good arrangement. I have only used it a handful of times, when I was expecting to be in the car for at least a half hour at a time.
I suppose I should get a phone app for audiobooks and plug that into the car stereo, but I haven’t felt motivated to master the technological hurdle yet.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I haven’t mastered that technological hurdle yet either. I do still have a CD player in my car thankfully. Let me know if you work it out.
LikeLike
Meant to say I enjoyed the title for today – could hear this:
LikeLike