Noises Off & The Car That Got Away
I am able to shut out noise. This came in handy when I was working. People talking never bothered me. In fact once concentrating on something I often didn't notice when someone started talking to me. The down side is this gets me into trouble around the house. Another thing I do is sort of buffer what's being said to me when I'm engaged in doing something else. I hear it or kind of hear it. I realize someone is talking to me but I don't let it totally in until I'm finished doing what I'm doing. This came in handy when I was in school. More than once I had a teacher call me out for looking out the window while they were talking and ask, “Are you listening to me?” I would look at them and repeat the last sentence they said. Sometimes the class would then laugh. As you can imagine, this did not exactly endear me to the teacher and I could tell this did not convince them I was paying attention but there was not much they could do at that point. The truth was I was not really following what they were saying. I'm sure this is aggravating for someone trying to tell me or ask me something. Especially so when it's your spouse. As they say, you have to take the good with the bad, whoever they are... But, working as a computer programmer, where I would need to concentrate on developing an algorithm to solve a problem or to accomplish a task, it's very helpful to minimize interruptions while in mid-thought. During that process each interruption could set you back as then you will need to put in additional time and effort to get back into the stream of thought you were in. Plus, there's always the risk that you forget something as you try to figure out just where you were. It might even require you to start all over again. Being able to keep in my thought process until I've reached a place where I can logically break without losing anything was extremely helpful. Again the down side is this can and does irritate those wishing to engage with me. Regardless that's the way I work and it's something that is just natural to me. I do work hard to minimize this habit (or is it a quirk?) with Kris and of course now that I'm retired I have little reason to get deeply involved in that kind of logic problem. I still do get that way sometimes like when I am writing this blog, or when I'm trying to figure out just what happened to my computer before I give up and ask Kris for help. I never have that problem with my phone because any time I have a problem I just go directly to Kris. I don't even pretend that I can figure out a fancy schmancy cell phone where just answering the darn thing puts my tiny brain into to overload...
Years ago I attended a Cal basketball game at the Harmon Gym (Haas Pavilion today) with my friend Frank who was down from Eugene. Upon entering we were stopped and Frank was offered a chance to shoot the half-court shot for a chance to win a shinny new Camaro during half-time. Frank deferred to me so the chance was given to me instead. Frank thought I would do better because he said I would be better at not being effected by the crowd because of my ability to focus on the thing I was doing and ignore everything else around me. We had occasionally practiced this shot between pick-up basketball games back in Eugene. We didn't make a lot of them but we did sink some. If I took five attempts I would likely make one so I at least had an idea on how to take the shot with a chance of making it.
Half-time arrived and I went down to half-court. I was escorted out to the middle of the court and handed a basketball and told I had two chances to make a basket from behind the half-court line. I positioned myself behind the line. Using the “Rick Barry underhand method” I let the first one fly. It hit the front rim bounced up against the back board, back to the front rim, then bounced back up, and dropped to the floor just in front of the rim. I was handed the second basketball and as I was getting into position for my second attempt the guy from the Chevy dealership ran out on to the floor waving his hands to get my attention. I noticed him as he came into my field of vision. As he got closer to me I stopped and looked at him. He screamed “You're cheating because you had come across the half-court line before the ball reached the basket.” I turned and took a couple step towards him and replied “The only rule I was given was the shot had to be taken behind the line. Why does it matter where I go after that as long as I release the shot before I cross the line? This isn't a foul shot ” I had not been given any instructions about where I could or could not go once I released the ball. He continued to protest. It was at that point I became aware of the people in the stands. Of course I knew the crowd was there but I hadn't heard or paid any attention to them. I looked over at the band and they were playing a drum roll. I hadn't previously noticed or heard the drumming. I wondered: How long had that drum roll been going for - and then thought - Wow, everyone is waiting for me to shoot. I walked away from the car dealership guy and prepared to shoot again. After that first shot I felt I had a pretty good feel for the distance but now with my concentration interrupted that was all gone. I felt like I was starting over plus now I was aware of being watched and was hearing the drum roll. I launched my second shot. It looked online but the ball was a bit short completely missing the front of the rim before hitting the net and falling to the floor. I looked around for the dealership guy but he was long gone.
That was a one time deal and I often wonder how I might have done if I hadn't been interrupted by that guy – To steal a line from Terry Malloy, (On The Water Front) I coulda been somebody....
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