Five weird habits
I've been tagged by Dave over at the Galloping Beaver, who was tagged by Sandra at Lesser Spotted Bunting and asked to reveal five weird habits. While I have a variety of weird habits, many of which I will not discuss in polite company, let me say that I'm sure my friends and especially my wife could name many many more than five weird things I do, say or think.

1. I always carry a harmonica and play it everywhere - waiting for the bus, walking down the street, waiting at the stoplight when I drive. When I used to spend a lot of time on the road for work I used to wear one in neck rack occasionally and play non-stop on longer drives.

2. I put mustard on dill pickles and cheese, sweet pickle relish on grilled cheese sandwiches and hot sauce on just about everything.

3. I almost never wear sneakers - a lifelong habit- and notice other people's shoes. I do not have a shoe or foot fetish and doubt I have ever owned more than three or four pairs of shoes at any given time in my life.

4. As a (recovering) literary critic, I read obsessively and rarely leave the house without a book. I regularly go back and reread favorites. I read everywhere (when I'm not playing harmonica, though I have been known to do both) and have a such a book-buying jones that I try not to go into bookstores if I have money in my pocket.

5. I never leave or return to the house without my pockets overflowing with stuff: wallet, notebook, pens, pencils, lighters (I don't even smoke anymore), food, hipflask, handkerchief, harmonicas, penknife, change purse, safety pins, matchbooks with phone numbers or ideas written on them, business cards, harmonicas, chopsticks, comb, cell phone, ipod, reciepts for thing bought weeks, even months ago, newspaper clippings, train schedule, etcetera ad infinitum.

My car, when I drove one, used to be much worse - the backseat floor I used as a garbage dump, the trunk was stuffed with camping gear and tools and odd and ends like stray cans of beer, old newspapers and leftover firewood, I could, and occasionally did, live out of it for days on end.

So between all that and being a blogger I suppose I can pretty much count on ending my days as a mustard-stained derelict in brogues pushing a shopping cart full of books, playing the harmonica and shouting at traffic

And I'm tagging:
Dave at Axis of Evel Kneivel
Baz at Oi! Thump!
CC at Canadian Cynic
Cathie at CathiefromCanada
The almost daily Mike Daley