My head has been full of songs and the ticking of the clock today.

While bicycling to my first appointment this morning, I was inexplicably reminded of some old song lyrics by DC Talk -- an obscure 1990s hip-hop group.  It really doesn't make sense why my mind would have been drawn to such memories of music from my teenage years because I don't currently own any of those old albums, nor would there be any chance that I've overheard strains of the old songs on local radio stations or piped-in music at stores.  But the songs were there nonetheless.  First it was "Love is a Verb" (I'm genuinely shocked by how many of the lyrics to this song I can remember!).  Then it was "Lean on Me."  And then I was at my meeting -- so my internal soundtrack was basically absorbed by conversation.

One of the topics in this first conversation of the day, however, was the realization of the increasing velocity of time over the course of one's life.  Seriously, it's hard to believe that we're already almost at the end of 2008.  I've hardly gotten used to writing this date on letters and forms and whatever -- and now I'm already starting to have to train myself to turn those "'08"s (or sometimes still "'07"s in my mind!) to "'09"s!  Yikes!  So during the conversation, my thoughts were somehow turned toward Jim Croce and his song "Time in a Bottle" (the YouTube video above is the Muppet Show version of the song, which I remember very vividly from my childhood).  Jim Croce was, officially, before my time.  But I remember checking his greatest hits (on CD) out from the Marvin Memorial Library in Shelby this past summer and listening to its folksy melodies throughout long hot drives throughout the Midwest.  And for the rest of the afternoon, my mind was stuck on Jim Croce:  "Time in a Bottle," "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," and "Don't Mess Around with Jim."

And then, after finishing up a supper with my family, my mind somehow switched to the "Sound of Music" soundtrack.  "Do Re Mi," "Edelweiss," and all that good stuff.  Even further back in time than Jim Croce and DC Talk.  But good stuff, and associated with other various memories from my childhood.

It's odd to try and figure out how all of these memories and melodies become intertwined and associated with each other.  But it's fun to enjoy the soundtrack for whatever it's worth.