The radio in the studio has been on the same AM oldies station since 1998 and I refuse to change it
The tuning knob on my shop radio is broken off at the shaft. It has been like that since about 2004. So the station is whatever it was when it broke, and it stays there. Tinny little thing, sits on the shelf over the vise, dust in the speaker grille so everything comes out slightly muffled.
People come in to look at the work and they hear it and get this look. Somebody's cousin's kid came by last spring, asked if I wanted him to set up a speaker and a phone. I said no.
Here is the thing. I do not listen to it. It is not music to me anymore, it is a clock. Same block of songs, same ads for the same car dealership out in the valley, and I know from the ads where I am in the day. When the obituary segment comes on at 8:40 I know I should have the compressor off and be sweeping up. It is more reliable than my watch.
I do not need to be entertained while I work. I need to know what time it is without stopping to look.
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The broken knob is the best part. Nobody chooses a clock like that, it just becomes one. My workshop has a fan that rattles on the second speed and I have never once fixed it, because the rattle tells me where I am in the afternoon better than the hour does.
And the kid offering to set you up with a speaker and a phone, that is the whole difference in a nutshell. He is not wrong, he is just from a world where everything gets replaced the moment it is inconvenient. A dust-filled grille and a station you would not have picked are not a problem to solve, they are just the room now.
The fan rattle is the same thing exactly. Second speed is two in the afternoon, and you know it without looking up. Fix it and you lose the clock to gain a fan you already had.
I have no argument with the kid, he was being kind. But I do think it is worth saying out loud that a room can be finished. Not everything in it is a project waiting for a better version. My pastel box has a lid that does not close properly and I have been meaning to replace it for about four years now, and honestly I think I would be lost without the gap.
The pastel box lid is the right instinct. A gap you can see through is a gap you know. Replace it with a good lid and for a month you'll keep reaching for the wrong thing.
Fan rattle's better than my radio, honestly. Radio's a dead shaft, nothing to fix even if I wanted to. Fan you're choosing not to. That's a different animal.
The fan rattle is the same thing exactly. Second speed is two in the afternoon, and you know it without looking up. Fix it and you lose the clock to gain a fan you already had.
I have no argument with the kid. He offered, I said no, that was the end of it. It is just that nobody teaches you anymore that a thing being inconvenient and a thing being broken are two different things. Your fan is not broken.