Date: 11 December 2014. Music aboard Seaweed
(Alzheimer's too)
© janice142
Although by
no means can anyone call me a musicologist, I do enjoy tunes on
occasion. Especially during the holiday season, hearing the
crooners of yesteryear brings back memories of an earlier
time. I do so love listening to songs like Dean Martin's "It's a Marshmallow
World" from his
Making Spirits Bright CD along with Burl Ives' "Rudolph
the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
and Bing Crosby's "White
Christmas and Holiday Inn"
plus more. These allow me to revisit my past. I do so enjoy that.
For me,
Christmas is about the music, decorations, giving gifts, and
remembering.
These angels came from Grandma and were on our 40'er
when I was a child.
To listen to
the singers I prefer in this millennium would be difficult over
the air-waves. I solved that problem.
Prior
to departure I bought many CDs and turned them into MP3's. All are
stored on a spare hard-drive along with in my computer. CDs afloat,
well, they take quite a bit of room. As digital files I can have as
much as I want. Therein lay the first problem.
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Too Much of
a Good Thing |
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Initially I gathered every
song that I liked or thought someone might enjoy listening to aboard
the boat. One day I woke up with 100+ gigs of music, most of which I
didn't even like!
For me it is all to easy to be overwhelmed by minutia, and
having that many choices was not working. So I deleted, and
felt better for it.
Clutter is not only physical
stuff. Digital debris can also be clutter.
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Stuff accumulates. If I had less I would not be dealing with things
like this:
Side Note: Mother had
Alzheimer's and part of the reading I did suggested that music
listened to when she was young would help her feel less lost.
Thus I have a rather extensive collection of older songs. After listening to the
crooners she loved for years however, I came to appreciate them
too.
It is weird: I am young to
have Bing Crosby and Dean Martin as favorites, yet the sounds of the 70's and
later?
Well, I do not listen to be-bop, trucking is out, but the love songs of
old? Just perfect, thank you.
Still often I feel
alienated. No box fits and though I might like some rock-n-roll,
I find that is never playing on the radio aboard Seaweed. What is coming through my
speakers are the older songs speaking of love, good memories and
simpler times.
I am quite satisfied
with the music I have on my thumb drives.
For the first couple years on
Seaweed I had no radio. The computer was my music player. That is not
particularly satisfying either. No doubt my bad hearing helped make the
experience less than it could have been.
Fortunately that
was resolved by a fellow on a sailboat throwing away a Pioneer car
stereo. It is mine
now. Ken asked the former owner if I could have it. Then Ken
installed it for me. I am naturally delighted.
This is Ken. He is keeping Skipper warm inside his sweatshirt.
The reason the former owner was disposing of the
radio was because of his iPod. There is a slot to plug the gizmo into
the radio and have music come through the speakers. Nifty. However,
after a couple years of use the connecting pins started to become
loose. Jiggling the iPod each time he wanted music worked, but not
well.
He upgraded, and I gave a home to
his old radio. Because I intended to use digital music via a USB
outlet in the front of the radio, I wanted to avoid the issue he'd
had. My solution is a USB extension wire that is permanently plugged
into the radio. I simply swap out the SIM card adapter or flash
drive as required from the other end.
Eventually that wire end may give
out, but the radio shall be intact and ready for another cord. I
make stuff last as long as possible, thus saving money.
From left to right, the
weather station, AM/FM/CD
radio, fuses (accessible) and a flash drive of music.
A friend I made back in
Apalachicola, Pam (who owns a small gift shop, and she has books --
inexpensive ones!!) even swapped my two larger speakers for three
smaller ones. I have wired them around the cabin. I'm tickled to have
surround sound.
Pam's business is called Reel
Memories. [Phone: 850-899-1281] As a native of Apalachicola she also
offers sight-seeing tours and fishing trips on her boat. Yes, Pam is
a licensed captain too. How cool is that?!?
She is also a real nice person. I
bought the prettiest tea set for my Grand from her. Although just
two, the baby loves that darling little tea set and I am pleased
that she
is allowed to play with it. When too many pieces break I'll buy her
another.
Pam also had a lovely Austrian
hand-painted dish that relocated to my boat. I've got a plant in it right now.
My tree twig croaked but one of these days I'll find a bonsai for
it. Here's a picture from last year of the pretty dish sitting in
front of Santa's Workshop:
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Regarding
my music: The only problem I have is the Pioneer stereo (an older
unit but does have a USB outlet) doesn't seem to play all the
selections on the flash drive, or SIM card as the case may be. It
probably gives me a couple gigs of music and then repeats.
Yes, I have tried
with both random
on and off. It still doesn't seem to play everything. I have used
thumb drives, SIM cards and even a spare SATA drive with the music. None play all
the songs for some reason.
This is
still lots better than having a stack of CDs aboard.
So I swap out
the music on flash drives and call it good.
P.S. - I
think I am in love with
Dean Martin.
What are your favorite Christmas songs?
And, when do you usually put up and take down your Christmas tree?
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