If you notice a little spring in my step or a little two-step shuffle in my walk, well it's all due to the Father's Day gift I scored this year.

The silver wrapped box seemed far too light to hold anything of substance, yet, there it was. It's silver and wafer thin, seemingly light as a feather, and yet powerfully loud. I've got a new Apple ipod music player.

Knowing my frustration with too much technology, my family elected for the simple model, a music player that shuffles around all the tunes down loaded onto the play. All I have to do is clip the gizmo to my shirt, place the earpieces, one in each ear, and hit "on."

The quality of the sound is incredible and the rest of the world seemingly melts away when you up the volume.

I think the family thinks I'll get myself on the treadmill more with a little background music. If I did that I could fit back into many Father's Day gifts of the past now having collars too small and waistbands too snug. Oh the possibilities!

For some time now I've been fascinated with the grant of immunity a guy or gal claims with a little pair of earplugs. And I've wondered, is it the music they're really all after, or is it the seeming impenetrable cocoon that the earplugs grant?

Stock boys with earphones don't need to tell you where the jelly is.

Shoppers with earphones can whisk by the Salvation Army bell ringer with abandon.

With earphones you don't get asked for directions.

The panhandler on the street might as well get a job rather than depend on the earphone crowd to "spare a little change."

Normal pleasantries, the little "good mornings" and the "excuse me," all of those can be dispensed with if one wears earphones.

And oh the production, the interruption, the downright inconvenience when those of needing to communicate must ask the audio cocooned person for their attention. The ear phoned wearer makes this huge production of taking the ear phones off, all the while giving this perplexed, astounded look of bewilderment as to what it could possibly be that you need.

I'm eager to see how the grant of invincibility works. Clearly the earplug wearers I observe act like they are immune to the perils that plague the rest of us. The joggers that go off with their soundtracks blaring don't seem to be concerned with the traffic buzzing around them. An elderly lady walking her two dogs crossed against the traffic signal in front of me the other day. No rules applied to her since the

soundtrack in her ears apparently

warded off us evil motorists.

I suppose I'm pretty safe on the treadmill with my new earphones. I'll probably still be able to hear that inner voice saying, "let's quit this and go get a donut."

* * *

In the office where I work they keep the temperature at a balmy 65 degrees during normal business hours. Then at 6 p.m. the air conditioning goes off and a warm stillness prevails until the next morning. The windows don't open by design so us worker bees are stuck with blowing cold or warm stillness.

Sometimes I wonder if air conditioning keeps us from being "in tune" with a season intended for a slower pace.

Sunday afternoon I got to pull the little red wagon holding two delightful youngsters. The five-year-old, a little girl with pretty dark curls, was recounting her summer thus far.

"The best part was throwing rocks in the lake," she exclaimed.

"Food for thought," I noted to myself, that the best time can be the most of ordinary times, when we are truly "in tune" with the here and with the now.

Happy summer!