Mindless Games

At first I thought to title this "Mind Games."  But that phrase has negative connotations of manipulating another person.  In my case, there's no other person.  And it's not so much manipulation as it is boredom management.

The gist is that when I do something that requires little thought, my mind plays games.

For example, when I take my lunch time walk, my mind will seize upon a thought or idea and chew upon it as if were a wad of gum.  When I visit the local cemeteries, I'll read off the names on the markers as would a school teacher calling out names for attendance.  The teacher is invariably an annoyed, bored and insensitive middle-school gym teacher, one who likes to crack jokes and one for whom English was not his best subject.

"Stein" "Gladstone" "Cohen" "Ginsberg" "Fleiss"  "What the hell is this, a synagogue?  You guys wanna send out for some bagels or sumthin?"  I've had gym teachers like that, actually.

Cleaning out the litter boxes, I'll be entertained by various scenes from "The Karate Kid."  It probably started by associating the drudgery with all those chores that Danny had to do in exchange for learning karate, such as waxing cars (wax on, wax off), painting the fence, and scrubbing the deck.  But now, arbitrary scenes from the movie (and its successor) effortlessly pop into my head.

Does your mind do this, too?  What chores are most likely to get your mind chewing gum?  What do you think about?