Companionable silence

Bob's birthday was yesterday, and we went out to dinner and had a really nice time. We went to Stephenson's, which is kind of "our" place -- the place where we've gone for nearly every birthday or anniversary since we started dating. It's beginning to show some wear--it's quite an old restaurant--but we still enjoy going there.

Last night our room (it's like an old farmhouse, with lots of small rooms rather than one big dining room) was noisy, with one big party of a half dozen elderly couples and a couple of other big family groups, all talking loudly. We couldn't really hear each other talk, but I suppose by now we've said just about everything to each other, so we're fairly comfortable with companionable silence . . .

Bob got about two hours' sleep on Thursday night. He made plans late to go fishing with John on Friday, planning to meet him at 4:00 a.m. to drive down to Truman Lake, so by the time he got his stuff together, it was already late, and he had to get up at 2:30 a.m. or some ridiculous hour.

He did it, and had a really good day, he said, but he was worn out when he got home Friday night. I came upstairs at about 7:00 and found both him and Pyewacket sound asleep. I took a flash photo, and neither of them even stirred.

He was listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't ask him if he had any weird dreams.

Speaking of dreams, I spent a couple of hours last night setting up XML feeds for the weblogs; I actually enjoyed doing it--it's one of those things that I've been putting off because I didn't want to spend the time figuring it out, but once I got into it, it was kind of fun. But then I dreamed about it, dreamed that there was something wrong, and they were all messed up, and I couldn't figure out how to fix them. Just a dream, thankfully.

Health club annoyance:

When I got to the gym yesterday afternoon there was absolutely no one there. Not unusual for a Saturday, I guess. I mean, the people who worked there were there, but no clients. I grabbed a television remote from the front desk and went upstairs and staked out a treadmill.

There are six treadmills and three television sets. Watching television is the only way I can walk in place for a half hour without dying of boredom, but I seldom actually want to watch anything that anyone else has selected, so Saturdays -- when there's virtually no one there -- are always nice since I can choose what the television is turned to.

I found a movie, Notting Hill, on USA, and was walking along, watching, and reading the closed-captioned subtitles. You see, the radio was blasting downstairs, and there was a television turned on on the other side of the cardio floor, so even if I had had the sound on, it was way too annoying. I'm used to reading the closed-captioning because I normally go on Tuesday and Thursday nights, yoga nights, when the televisions have to be muted.

I had been walking about ten minutes when another woman came up to use a treadmill. She had headphones on, and chose the treadmill on the end. Then, pretty soon, another woman came up and chose the one in between us. She asked me, "Do you mind if I turn the sound up?"

"Uh. No, I guess not," I said, and handed her the remote. So she turned the sound up loud enough to drown out the television on the other side and the radio. I felt it would be rude to say anything, but there was another television on the end, she could have chosen that treadmill and done whatever she wanted with the television, but whatever.

So this sweet romantic comedy is just blasting, and about two minutes later the woman on the treadmill on the end leaves, and the woman in the middle, who had turned my television up, gets off her treadmill, gets on the one that was just vacated, and turns on that television. She comes over and borrows my remote again, turns the channel to Emeril, turns the sound up loud enough to drown out not only the radio and the first television, but the one I was watching, which she had just turned up.

Oooookay. Like I said, whatever. I muted my television once again, slightly fearful she was going to turn on me and say, "Hey! I was listening to that!" but she didn't say anything. Too weird.

I wouldn't have any trouble telling someone no, I won't change the channel, if I'm watching something. Asking to turn the sound up is okay, I guess. But mostly, I figure whoever gets there first gets to do what they want. If I can stand to watch some of the stuff other people turn on, I think they can live without having a different channel for each ear.

(Bob icon created at Abi-Station.)