Gardening, Christmas Lights and Mixed Tapes

They say, in Denver, not to plant your flowers until after Mother's Day, because it will drop below freezing at some point and you'll lose them. But, I'm SO ready to plant my flowers now! I don't garden....at all. But that's beside the point!

I took Jackson and another little boy I watch, on a long walk today. It's beautiful outside, 60 degrees and sunny. Not too shabby for March 3rd! I love days like today where I can put my headphones on and just walk and think. The boys are usually really great during walks too, but if they aren't, I just turn the music up louder....

I saw a house with Christmas lights still up. Granted, they were very nicely hung and still looked good, but, it's March. Time to stop finding excuses for why you can't get on the roof, and get your ass up there and take them down! If we leave our trash can out until Tuesday morning, we get a notice of violation from the HOA, yet these clowns still have their Christmas lights up in March? Com'mon!

While walking, and thinking, and listening to music, I started thinking about "back in the day" when we used to make mixed tapes for people. Now that was a great gift! First was the time and effort put into picking out the songs. (That alone could take days) Then you had to collect all of the songs from all of your tapes laying around and cue the songs up just right, so that they started at the right time. You'd push "Play" on one side of your dual tape player and "Record" on the other side, where your blank tape was, and sit and listen to the song while it recorded. Then you'd do that same thing, with like, 15 more songs. Then, you'd have to go back and relisten to the entire thing, just to make sure they all actually recorded and you didn't accidentally tape over something. But, before you could give your tape away, you'd write down all of the songs on the outside cover of the tape holder. This whole "mixed tape" project would take an entire evening or more. Once it was finished, you'd have to wait until you saw the person to give it to them. Nowadays, if I want someone to hear a song, I go online, find the song, and email it to them. It takes less than a minute. If I want to find the lyrics to a song to send someone, I google them, copy them and paste them. Back in the day, I'd listen to a song over and over again so I could write down the lyrics for someone: rewind, play, STOP.... rewind, play, STOP..... rewind, play STOP!

I love technology and how it makes the world a smaller place, but sometimes, it would be nice to have those days back, and have someone take the time to make me a mixed tape.