Who was it that wrote about multiple intelligences?  I can’t remember.  Her or his point was that there are many areas of life where we can be smart, and other areas where we’re far from it.

I think I have interpersonal intelligence.  I connect easily with people and am often successful in drawing out their soul, what’s important to them.

I believe I also have musical intelligence, feeling and expressing the subtle flavours of a song sung or a cello piece played.  And often touching the audience … again drawing forth the best from many of them.

Now it’s time for a “but” …

I love my water bottle.  It’s beautifully turquoise.  And it works great in the gym for cardio and strength training.

Recently I noticed that the inside of the drinking spout was dirty, and soaking it in hot soapy water didn’t help.

So the glory of my mind created bleach.  I soaked the top of the bottle in a bleach/water blend for two hours.  “I’ll clean it off really well afterwards under the tap, rinse it some more, then immerse it in a bath of clean water for a long time.”

Whew!  I remain fascinated with my brain.  In what universe would this procedure be considered benign?  But I remained cheerfully ignorant, trusting that the gods of cleanliness would protect me.  Silly, dangerous Bruce!

It was time for the first sip in the gym.  Metal!  Toxic!  Stupid!  My trust in the universe had neglected the fact that, while the body of the bottle was hard plastic, the drinking spout was rubber.  As in easily absorbing what it’s bathing in.

Not being entirely dense, I stopped drinking after two sips.  I passed through a vague nausea as my arms and legs did their thing on the elliptical machine.

Then I spent a few minutes shaking my head.

Next I sat in a gym chair and searched for a replacement bottle from the same manufacturer – Contigo. 

It arrived today.  The observant among you will notice not turquoise but blue … my new and improved bottle.  Which goes nicely with my new and improved Bruce.

There’s a second part to this story, which I will reveal tomorrow.  It involves a quirk of mine, and delightful OCDness, which my dear wife Jody used to call “a Bruce idiotsyncrasy”.

Stay tuned