Choice

I grew up with two TV channels. When John F Kennedy was assassinated they replaced "Bonanza" with an old woman playing piano  much to my annoyance. It was either that or nothing. I probably went and played out.

It's the same with books and music, I know people who have little or no personal music or books in their lives and at some point I didn't have much.

This has come home to me using the Samsung A3 until I replace my Google Pixel. I had so much music on the Pixel that I didn't really know what to play some days. It's the same with TV channels , I have over 200 to choose from as well as on demand TV and over 400 video discs, as well as so many books I could start my own library.

Reading "Follow The Music" I decided to load the CD from it plus the five discs from "Forever Changing " in to the small SD card on the phone to listen to in sequence.  It's strange having too much choice is almost as bad as having no choice at all or a limited choice, but it's always better to have the option of too much of what you want.

But listening to these albums , I 'm not thinking of what should I listen to, I'm enjoying the six albums that I have to listen to , and means that I can appreciate them as they should be, Having said that there is some awful stuff mixed with some subliminal stuff but I am still on the early folk so we have Tim Buckley and Tom Rush mixing with people I've never heard before, but  is all great to listen to.

When I've finished these I'll replace them with another few albums. Sometimes it is good to limit your choices, but then again you want to be able to choose what you limit yourself to.

Tomorrow I have a work photography session, I offered to be in the crowd and they've asked me to run it, so that should be interesting.

So what song should we go with , it has to be one from the current album, we'll take Judy Collins' "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" which I first heard excellently covered by Rod Stewart on "Every Picture Tells A Story" and it is a wonderful song penned by Bob Dylan and covered by many.

Kontakt

I said I write about anything , and I have no writing targets, but this morning as I put in my contact lenses I was still amazed how they actually work. Today was almost seamless lenses in , one perfect vision,  in slight irritation , so took it out and put it back in. I started on contact lenses thirty years back with hard lenses, I have never felt more uncomfortable and at the same time euphoric that I could walk round and see without glasses.

Someone once said to me that I wore contact lenses out of vanity. I told them it wasn't. I have 20/20 vision with them in, they don't get wet when it rains, and don't steam up when you go from cold to warm environments.

When I moved to soft lenses (I had considered laser surgery but they told me once it was done I would have to wear glasses for reading and it would cost me two grand, slightly pointless as I didn't want to wear glasses permanently and pay for the privilege), I heard stories about people who lose them in their eyes, get them stuck to their eyes and can't get them out etc. I lost one and it reappeared about three days later and I didn't feel any irritation.

It just amazes me that I put them in and then I can see. It amazes me that they adjust to my eye and that I can then see. Who thought that instead of glasses you could stick something on your eye (a horrible thought until you actually do it and get used to it) . Apparently the idea was first mooted by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1580, but there's a fair bit about on Wikipedia here.

Also why does bad weather seem worse at night. Last night was rainy and windy but this morning seems to have quietened down. Monday night I was walking home and got hit by rain and stinging hailstones and when I looked at what was playing when I got on it was "Stormy Weather" by Echo and The Bunnymen. Last night it started snowing when I was walking back though I am now listening to the free CD that came with "Follow The Music" with 26 early Elektra folk and blues tracks some taken from vinyl. Some are embarrassingly trite but some are very good like Judy Collins cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" and Phil Ochs "I Ain't Marching Anymore" which what will go with this morning , an excellent anti war anthem.