Focus. Such a simple word. Heck it’s only five letters, how tough can it be? Apparently extremely difficult, for me anyway. I seem to be surrounded by so many distractions these days, each of them prying me away from all of my intended tasks.

Every night I create my ‘tomorrow list’ , my list of goals for the next day. Sure, no guarantee that I’ll get any of them done but more than likely I’ll accomplish at least one or two. Not too much to expect, is it? Which in turn gives me some semblance of moving forward towards my goals. And to be honest I need to feel as if something is getting done, otherwise the days fly by and at the end of the week, all I have to show for my effort is the same list I started with, only it’s five times longer than Mondays list.

Very defeating to say the least. Give up, pack it in, forget about everything I'm trying to accomplish? Nope, I just keep pluggin' away at it, hoping to make it through another day of relentless interuptions. Yet at the end of the day it seems to be more or less the same ol' story. Nothing to show for it but a headache and an ulcer. Not exactly what I was looking for, that's for sure.

Kind of reminds me of Tiger Woods and his Father Earl. Tiger would be practicing, hitting golf balls on the Driving Range or wherever and just as Tiger was in the middle of his backswing, his Dad would knock over his golf bag or throw a couple balls in front of him, something to that effect. Anything he could do to distract him from what he was doing.

At first, all this did was anger him. You know Tiger, I'm sure he was cussin' up a storm. But as time went by, he gradually began to learn to cope with these distractions and 'play through' them. If you follow golf at all then I'm sure you've seen Tiger stop his golf swing, at the beginning of his down swing because of some type of distraction. For anyone that's ever played golf, you know how difficult this is. Once the body is moving, it's nearly impossible to halt all of that forward momentum. At least not without throwing out your back in the process.

Yet Tiger has done this on many occasions, choosing to 'cancel' the shot rather than hitting the ball when he's not 100% commited to it. He would much rather start over completely than to hit a shot that he's not comfortable with. That takes some split second decision making, not a maybe I will, maybe I won't attitude. Again, only a rare few are able to even attempt this, let alone pull it off. In fact, I was watching a Tournament a few weeks ago....sorry, I kind of lost my focus for a minute. Back to my original thought. What was it again? Oh yeah, Focus. Highly sought after yet one of the most elusive of all traits.

This morning is a prime example of letting all the distractions around me take over, redirecting my focus to other areas and not allowing me to focus on the task at hand. Five TVs going at the same time but only two people home [and one of them is on the computer]. Most of the TVs seem to be on the same channel, yet all of them are about 3 seconds out of 'sync' and so it seems as if they are all screaming from various 'bottomless pits'. HELLO, HELLo, HELlo, HEllo, Hello.....HOW, HOw, How......

Dishwasher roaring away, the soapy water whooshing back and forth as the dial 'clicks' from position to position. Click, Clack, Bammm! With each cycle change I can hear the 'system' go through the motions. Lather, Rinse, Repeat! Oooops, that's if you're shampooing your hair. Lost my focus a bit there.

As I was saying, with every cycle change of the dishwasher a new distraction is evoked, causing me to lose my train of thought again. Hmmm, why is it so easy for me to focus on the sounds of the dishwasher but nearly impossible for me to continue to focus on my writing?

Then the Tea Pot starts to whistle it's never ending tune. Like a screaming Steam Locomotive barreling down on me, my mind instantly travels back to the 60's TV show, The Wild Wild West and that bitchin' Train Jim and Artie always ended up celebrating on at the end of each adventure. Jeez, that Caboose was so beautiful inside. Funny how they never showed the Engineer. I wonder if there was anybody piloting that train? And that coolishly evil 'mini~me' guy, Dr. Miguelito Loveless, he was such a great nemesis. Did you see the episode where they....sorry, distracted again.

What's THAT noise? Oh, the friggin' vacuum. Yes, that is a necessary task around the house but does it have to be done NOW? Why can't it be done when I'm out of the house, running errands or something? Who does the scheduling around here anyway? Then it occurs to me. I should probably help out around here a lot more and I could start by doing some of that vacuuming myself. How will I find the time to fit THAT in to my schedule as well as all the other things I need to get done? Then the guilt starts. Yep, I better put that on my list.

Where the heck is that list anyway? Oh, here it is. No, this can't be it, it has a date on it from two weeks ago. Unfortunately this IS the correct one. I never bothered to start a new one, just kept adding to the old one. Didn't have anything I could cross off so might as well keep it going. Why waste the paper? Oh, that reminds me. I need some new legal size yellow tablets to write out some rough drafts for some of my future Blog Posts. Hmmm, where's my Office Depot list? Have you ever been to Office.....sorry, distracted AGAIN!

Holy crap, what was THAT? Sounds like the Space Shuttle just took off from Bryans Air Force Base! As I run to the window, I realize it's the Tree Trimmer guys that pulled up across the street earlier this morning. My ear plugs helped to deaden most of the chain saw noise but when they fired up the Chipper, no ear plugs invented are ever gonna knock down that turbine from hell. At this point all I can hope is that they attempt to shred a limb that is just way too big, jam the machine and have to call it a day. I mean, I hate to have anybody miss any work but it sure would be nice to have them call it a day a bit early. Hmmm, I wonder if they get paid by the hour or if they're on salary? I had a salary job once and I nev...sorry, distracted again. Dang It!

As I was saying, Focus seems to be so hard to come by these days. With the world around us so full of noise pollution, it's nearly impossible to find a place to 'hide out', far away from all of the distractions that seem to keep us from our intended mission. All I want is just a little peace and quiet for a change. Is that too much to...hang on, somebodys at the door. BRB....

"No thanks, we just rent here. Sure, I'll give your card to the Landlord but I know how cheap he is so I doubt he'll want any of these trees trimmed. I'm sure he'd much rather just wait for the next storm to do the work for him and save some money. His theory is to let Mother Nature take care of it. If it's meant to come down, it will." Speaking of storms, just a few days ago we had an incred.....ooops, got a bit distracted there.

Focus. Why is it so easy to focus on all of the outside distractions and not on the more important tasks? I want so badly to get these things done. This got me to wondering. Am I'm just making excuses? Cheesy reasons for never getting any work done? Shouldn't I be able to write in the middle of a hail storm, with the doors and windows wide open, all the TVs on, stereo playin' full blast, gardner weed whackin' the bushes and a.... uh oh, what the heck is THAT THUMPIN'?

Not another Police chase! That helicopter sure is flyin' low and now it's doin' circles! THUMP, THUMp, THUmp.... Maybe they have the guy surrounded already? That sure would be nice, then perhaps they could 'wrap it up' sooner. Just drag the guy out of the car already! I mean c'mon, guilty until proven innocent, right? More than likely he carjacked the Minivan anyway and now that it's absolute junk from the Spike Strips and the PIT Maneuver you put on it, commence with the 'beat down' and haul him to the Gray Bar Motel. Speakin' of police chases, did you see that last episode of Worlds Dumbest Criminals where the guy tried to....dammit, distracted again!

OK, no more excuses, I gotta stay focused or I'll never get this Post finished! I'm not usually one to just start writing a new Blog Post from scratch. It's very rare, if ever that I just sit down and write one 'on the fly' but for some reason I feel very inspired this morning and no doubt I need to vent a bit. Normally I do a rough draft first and then whittle it down so that it's only way too long as opposed to being WAY WAY TOO LONG!

Yes, I admit I have an issue with overly long Blog Posts but I hate to feel 'cramped' and to have my thoughts stifled by the so called 'rules' of the Blogosphere. Who made up these rules anyway? And who's gonna enforce them, some kind of Cyber Sheriff? Flyin' around in a 'Virtualcopter', screaming out on his bullhorn, "That Post is TOO LONG! Delete It Immediately! Put your two typing fingers in the air and step away from the computer!"

Like in that movie that Sly Stallone did called Judge Dread. He was some sort of Lawman from Outer Space, flyin' around and passing judgement on all these Cyberdudes. That was back when movies only cost about $7.00, nowadays they are outra....jeez, gettin a bit off track again. I gotta work on that.

I really have to get better at staying focused, that's for sure. I'm beginning to feel like an Octoblogger with thirty five arms, each of them working on something without the others knowing exactly what that something is.

Multi~multitasking, which is never good because for the most part none of the tasks are ever completed and the few that are are basically done half assed and by no means anything to be proud of. I take pride in everything I do. That's why I tend to put 110% in to whatever it is I'm doing, regardless of its level of importance. Doesn't always show but I know inside that I did my best. I think that all started way back when I first....Damn Dogs, what are they barkin' at NOW? Hold that thought, I'll be RIGHT BACK....

Until I moved to the desert I had no idea they even existed, these so called ‘Cricket Farmers’. They go about town throughout their day seemingly unnoticed, hidin’ under the radar. Extremely hard to spot, they wear no hats, gloves or ‘uniforms’ of any kind for that matter. Yet, I know they exist.

I’m not quite sure where they get their ‘training’, perhaps Cricket “U” but I have yet to see any license plate frames or stickers advertising such schools nor of the Alumni that would come from such institutes of higher learning. But here again, they must exist because my neighbor Larry surely must have gone to school to perfect his ‘craft’. Either that or he has a ‘gift’ born through generation after generation of Cricket Farmers.

After all, how else could one human being house so many crickets on one patio. Strange thing is, I have yet to see any type of feeding ‘apparatus’ or ‘living quarters’ for these crickets. Anything at all that would prove that this ‘Farm’ actually exists. Yet come nightfall it becomes painfully obvious to the ears that yes, I live next door to a Cricket Farm.

Oh, don’t be fooled such as I have. By day he’s a mild mannered Pharmacist at the local grocery store but I know his true talents lie elsewhere, in the field of Cricket Farming. It must be his calling as he definitely has a ‘knack’ for it. No other way to explain it. When asked about his ‘herd’, his only reply is to say “It’s a Gift, they are just drawn to me!” I’ll say they are. By the millions!

Perhaps he could be considered more of a “Cricket Whisperer” than a farmer. I’m not exactly sure but one thing I am sure about is that it takes a special talent to attract the amazingly vast amounts of crickets to ones patio that he does. Luckily for the rest of you, he’s a rare breed indeed. I would hate for others to live next door to such a relentlessly never ending noise factory.

So, next time you’re driving down Hwy. 111 or in line at your local Big 5 Sporting Goods store buying ear plugs, keep in mind that you could be right next to one of the rarest species out there, the Cricket Farmer.