When the only thing separating you from a fun hobby is motivation and effort

Until recently when I sold them, I owned three saxophones: an alto, a baritone, and a 100-year-old C melody. I kept them in my office/computer/music room upstairs.

I loved playing them, but I never actually did.

I also have a telescope in our basement storage room that I've used to observe the craters of the moon, the rings of Saturn, and the moons of Jupiter. I'm always amazed at what I see through the viewfinder, but I haven't brought it out in probably two years.

This is not to mention the shelves full of books I don't read or the running gear that sits unused in my closet because all I do these days exercise-wise is lift weights and walk.

What unites all of these activities is the fact that (a) I enjoy them, and (b) I never seem to do them.

And the only reason I don't do them is because I can never seem to drum up the motivation.

Not that any of them requires extraordinary motivation and effort. The worst thing with the saxophones, for example, was getting them out of the case, putting them together, and warming them up so I could play music.

This isn't difficult, but it was apparently a barrier to entry for me because whenever I thought about playing, I would instead decide that another game of solitaire on my phone was preferable to, you know, actually walking up the stairs and pulling out one of my horns.

The telescope is even easier to use. Just bring it up from the storage room, go out in the driveway and point it at the sky. I know how to find stuff from there, but...well, I'm on the couch petting the cat, you see, and that's a whole lot easier.

I'm realizing that life would be more fun if I could force myself to give the slightest effort whenever I'm not working or engaged in some household chore.

Is this because I'm 55 years old? Am I stuck in some sort of rut? Or has my iPhone turned me into a slug?

The answer is probably yes to all three.

Here's the good news, though: I'm very close to buying myself a nice, intermediate-level alto sax from my instrument repair and sales guy, Jon-O. And when I do, I plan to play it regularly. At least once a week.

Really, I will.

Of course, the saxophone requires a lot of air and mental energy, neither of which my phone's Yahtzee app requires of me, so...you know...maybe it's still kind of a toss-up.

Spotify is an all-around better experience, but I still use Apple Music

Depending on who you ask, Spotify has something like five times as many users as Apple Music. They are the two dominant players in the world of streaming music, but it's really no contest in terms of subscribers and total users.

I have accounts on both platforms. We pay for family subscriptions to both.

Yet I can't tell you the last time I used Spotify.

On the surface, this makes no sense. Spotify is #1 for a reason. They have a better user interface and, in my experience, a better algorithm when it comes to recommending new music I might like.

The only reason I continue to use Apple Music is that  – again, in my experience  – it is far more accommodating when it comes to handling local files. And by local files, I mostly mean my vast library of bootlegged live concerts and obscure classical music CDs.

In other words, the stuff to which neither Apple nor Spotify own streaming rights, and that therefore you have to upload yourself.

I have gigs and gigs of this sort of music. A number of years ago when I tried to transition away from Apple Music, Spotify simply wouldn't accept a lot of these files. Some uploaded and processed just fine, but most simply went away when I attempted to port them over.

I tried a few different times, but I was never able to get most of my local files onto Spotify.

Since that's mostly what I listen to, it was easier to simply stick with Apple Music, on which I never seem to have any issues with local files.

Now before you say it, I am well aware that many, many people have no problem using local files on Spotify. I've tried their prescribed methods for uploading this music onto Spotify, but it has never worked for me.

So I stick with the clear #2. I choose Pepsi over Coke. Burger King over McDonald's. Crest over Colgate. Figuratively speaking, of course.

There are two potential morals to this story:

(1) Companies need to realize that one bad user experience, or one glitch in their product's technical capabilities, can decide a lifetime of brand loyalty.

(2) I am too lazy to try and make Spotify work for me.

I hesitate to tell you how true I believe #2 to be.

This is the 500th post in the history of this blog, and I'm going to make it about my daughter Melanie

I have three daughters. Three smart, talented, beautiful daughters.

(NOTE: I would say this about them even if it weren't true, because that's my job as Dad. But it just so happens that it's a 100% accurate assessment.)

The oldest two, Elissa and Chloe, are also the first two in overall birth order. Then we had a boy (Jared), followed in 2000 by another girl, Melanie.

It was 5+ years before Jack, our last kid, came along. So for a long time, Melanie was the baby. When she was very little, we started calling her Melanie Moo (for reasons lost to time). Then she became Melanie Schmoo, and later just plain old "Schmoo."

Melanie's boyfriend Jason recently expressed disbelief that we ever called her this, and I can't blame him. It has been a long time since she has been "Schmoo."

She is now, after all, 20 years old. Amazingly, inexplicably 20 years old.

Time always go quickly when it comes to your children, but I feel like it has gone the fastest with Melanie.

It seems like a month ago she was six years old and starting soccer.

Then she was suddenly 11 and the goalie for the team I coached.

And then, maybe 10 minutes later, she was a high school senior playing forward...and getting herself involved in student government and all of the other extracurriculars in which The Smart Kids get involved.

And now she is a college sophomore. She is doing all of the things you do to set yourself up for a successful life, and I love to talk about her because I'm always so proud of her.

Of course, we all have areas of improvement. Melanie tends to be lazy. And not just regular old lazy, but Grade A, major league, highly impressive lazy.

Not all the time, mind you. She has a job in addition to attending school, and she was recently named Employee of the Month. She works hard when she wants to.

But when she doesn't want to, the lengths to which she'll go to avoid any sort of exertion are stunning.

Like, she'll be sitting on the couch and want a glass of water. She will always ask me to get it for her, because she knows I'm the only one who will do it.

I am her father. She is my daughter. If she asked for the moon, I would call NASA and see what it would take to bring it home.

So I always say yes. Or at least I want to say yes. Sometimes other family members are in the living room when she makes these requests, and they demand that I make her get up and get the glass of water for herself.

This makes me sad because I want to get it for her, but I know the best thing is for her to learn to do things even when she doesn't want to. That's how life works.

Anyway, if that's the worst thing anyone can say about her, then I think she's doing pretty well. I love her.

Also, she asked me when I was going to write a blog post about her, so this is it.

It's also post #500 since this blog began under a different name nine years ago. Thanks to everyone who has taken this journey of fits and starts with me since 2011!