Little Ditties of Life

Long hot day in the woods today. But a productive day.

It's strange how songs and melodies sometimes pop out of the ether and into your brain. As I worked this morning an old song I haven't heard in years ran through my mental music box over and over. It's a soft and sultry tune, totally unrelated to the work I was doing:

"With you I'm not shy,
to show the way I feel.
With you I'm not shy,
My secrets to reveal.
For you are a magnet and I am steel..."

After a lunch break, somebody changed the tape. For the next couple of hours it was an old Beatles song:

"Lovely Rita, meter maid
Nothing can stand between us
When it gets dark I'll tow your heart away..."

Once again, I haven't heard the song in ages, and it had no relation to the work I was doing. But it ran in continuous loop through my mind, over and over.

Sometimes toward the end of the day, the tape changed again. This time is was "Sweet Home Alabama." I know where that prompt came from, as last night I watched some old concert footage on PBS of Lynyrd Skynyrd in Oakland in 1977. At least it made a little sense to hum that one.

Perhaps it was just the heat that caused the internal music. It was awful hot, reportedly a 110 degree heat index. Dehydration can play tricks with the mind sometimes.

That's a scary thought. If I should ever collapse and die working in the woods, I certainly hope that "lovely Rita meter maid" isn't my last coherent thought before eternity.

Be careful what you put in your brain. You will never get rid of it.