A Problem for Richard Bleil
For nearly two years, I’ve tried to present a post a day to my blog. Some days earlier on it seems as if I might have missed a day, but I defined a “day” as before going to bed. My host site views a day a little bit differently. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that there are a LOT of blogs.
Well, 666 so far. Yup, gotta love that number.
Anyway, some days I have an abundance of ideas, and others I’m dry. Often, I have ideas so good that I cannot possibly forget them, only to forget them. Like today. So, I’ve gotten into the habit of emailing myself. It creates a little collection of concepts and thoughts to later write. Unlike today.
I often am also ahead in my blogs. At one time I had about two weeks’ worth of blogs queued up, which allows me to take little breaks, like mini vacations, without breaking my stride. Unlike today.
Today was a very long day. Unfortunately, my queue is empty; nothing has been pre-written ready for publication. So, when I got home, I opened up my email and looked for messages from myself, but sadly, found nothing. Well, the ones I found I had remembered at a later date, so I already had written them. Now I’m stuck here seeking an idea that’s not too terribly dull, remembering that I had forgotten an idea earlier already, hoping to find something to write about.
I would like to take at least a moment to discuss basic human courtesy. It seems as if courtesy is just gone these days. I’m temporarily living with my friend longer than I would have as I seek a new home for myself in an apartment complex. This week, I’ve had two incidents that basically take selfish people, and I’m sure you can guess both of them.
The first is obvious. Obnoxiously loud music and arguing. As I write this, I am watching a movie on my tiny little computer with headphones plugged into it so my tiny little speaker on my tiny little computer won’t make tiny little noises that are loud enough to disturb other people. This is just common courtesy. I don’t believe I could make enough noise to be cumbersome to others, but it’s now midnight, so I don’t want to risk it. I’m thinking about other people, so why aren’t other people thinking of me when they blast just horrible noises they consider to be “music” after midnight and don’t start screaming at each other at the top of their lungs until after most people are asleep?
The other is laundry. We have just as many driers as we have washing machines, which makes some kind of OCD logic I suppose until one considers that it takes at least twice as long for the driers to finish as the washing machines. On a busy day, continuously running driers means there will still be a backlog of people waiting for driers. So why is it that people will leave their laundry in the drier? I myself set a timer so I will remove my clothes quickly after the cycle is completed, and yet the last time I did laundry, one of the driers were already completed as I started my wash, and still filled when my washing machine had completed. I felt compelled to empty this drier for them into what I assumed was their laundry basket so I could use the drier. By the time I went back and cleared out my clothes from the drier, that person’s clothes were still in that laundry basket. Very annoying, and again, it’s just a matter of somebody not thinking about other people.
I once heard of manners described as something that is done as a courtesy to other people. Why is it manners to chew with your mouth closed? Because nobody wants to watch you masticate in public. These are basic manners that do nothing for the person who practices them but makes life a little bit better for those around. Courtesy is the same way. Knowing when to walk away from an argument, or at least to have a discussion instead of a fight let’s people sleep in preparation for work the next day. Keeping volume at a reasonable level is simple acknowledgment that not everybody has the same taste in music, and that modern music is pretty bad. (Yes, that was said tongue-in-cheek, and keeping your tongue in your own cheek is another courtesy.) Maybe I’m old-fashioned, out-of-date, or just plain old, but I would love to see our society return to the concept that we should be thinking about others and concerned for their comfort and well-being.
I’m going to stop preaching now and email an idea to myself for a future blog.
Bleil's Banter 