“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
The morning is sweatshirt weather, cloudy, damp and chilly. Everything is still a bit wet. We need sun, and luckily, the weather report is hopeful: sun in the afternoon. I hope it’s right.
My neighbor and I chatted this morning, and I sat on the damp steps for so long I could get piles. Okay, I know that’s not true, but that’s what I used to hear: sitting on cold ground was never a good idea because it caused piles. It wasn’t until I was much older that I found out piles are better known as hemorrhoids. Their connection to damp concrete was just an old wife’s tale, a bit of a weird one I think.
I have a few errands for later but that’s it for the day. My back is feeling better so I don’t want to chance hurting it again by doing anything. It’s a great excuse to lie around and do nothing, as if I really needed an excuse.
Every now and then I lose a day. I find something to hold my attention and before I know it the day has gone to afternoon. Often it is a good book as I am always loath to put down a good book. Sometimes I sit on the deck, get drowsy and fall asleep on the lounge. When I wake up, the sun is lower in the sky.
I seldom check clocks and I don’t wear a watch. If I need to be somewhere, I leave early enough to get there. My bedroom has a clock because once in a while I need to set the alarm, usually to meet friends for breakfast. My den has the clock on the cable box. I check it to make sure to watch a particular TV program. I think this dislike of clocks and watches comes from my life having been driven by time. I had to get up in time to have breakfast and to walk to school, later to catch the bus to school. Ghana was where time was of the least importance, but I still needed to know when my class was starting, and I had to set the alarm to catch an early bus. Beyond those, time meant little. You waited until the lorry was filled before it could leave. Nobody knew how long that would take. People arrived whenever which was defined as Ghana time. I got used to that. I learned to wait, to while away the time.
When I got home, I was again ruled by clocks and watches. Wasting time was sinful. It was the alarm clock every morning and bells all through the day to start and stop classes. Buses and trains left on time.
Retirement is glorious as time is of little importance. I go to bed when I’m tired and wake up whenever. I list appointments on the desk calendar, the one with Jeopardy questions, the one my sister puts in my stocking every year. I don’t keep a daily calendar in my bag the way I used to when I worked. I am a lady of leisure who has no need to know the time.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: appointment calendar, cloudy, errands, Ghanaian time, good books, hurt back, lose time, lost days, piles, retirement, sloth, timeless, waiting, watches and clocks, wet ground, while away the time, while the time away
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
June 29, 2015 at 12:05 pm
I eat at my desk, it takes about 15 minutes along with a stroll through the Wall Street Journal and a visit to KTCC. I am usually interrupted which is ok. If and only if, the office goes quiet, I will put on a headset and walk laps in a subdivision which is close by, trying to satisfy the demands of the fitbit.
June 29, 2015 at 1:58 pm
MDH,
I patrolled the lunch room, and when the kids were back in class, I ate at my desk and was generally interrupted. Once in a while I would find a place to hide and would enjoy the quiet of my book. Those were blessed lunches.
June 29, 2015 at 2:18 pm
I only have one clock, in the sitting room but I do have a clock in my mobile phone but that’s it. The only time I really need to know what the clock is, is in the morning so I get to work in time and when they show Grimm on tv 🙂
We’ve had a rainy but still rather warm and nice day here. It feels like I’m getting a cold, an idiot came to work last week with a nasty cold so now he has spread it to us all I’m afraid 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 29, 2015 at 4:58 pm
Christer,
When I was working, I went to bed early and got up really early. I needed a clock to get me up. Now, I could care less what time I get up unless I have a meeting.
Today ended up pretty nice with sun and a bit of warmth. My sister works with kids and they send home any kid with a cold as well they should.
Have a wonderful evening!
June 29, 2015 at 2:34 pm
Hi Kat!
I live by the clock. I think it comes from my early training in radio, where everything is timed out to the last available second. Also, in this country newscasts start at the very top of the hour. (I think you already know that broadcasts don’t always start precisely in some other parts of the world.) I am always aware of what time it is, and I do wear a watch. Just habit I guess. If I do not wear my watch, I feel naked.
It might also be in my DNA. My Grandfather on my Dad’s side, whom I never met, was a conductor on the old NY-Long Branch Railroad. He always wore a pocket watch…
Cloudy today but delightfully free of humidity. I will take it.
Waving,
Coleen
June 29, 2015 at 5:08 pm
Hi Coleen,
I hated living by my watch-be here, be there, hurry, but I was always on time as I can’t stand latecomers.
My father was a watch person but not my mother. I don’t think my sisters wear watches either. It must be a family thing.
Clouds are gone, and it’s sunny-I’m happy with the day.
Waving!!
Kat
June 29, 2015 at 4:49 pm
Hi Kat,
I don’t have clocks that I have to pay attention to. There is a small battery clock that was given to me by a good friend who moved away. It’s in the living room and usually obscured by yarn and bills. The microwave has a clock as do my phone, the laptop and all the ereaders. Sometimes I check them if I’m killing time before leaving for an appointment.
I have a whiteboard calendar on the refrigerator so I can have a readily visible reminder of what day of the week it is. For retired people every day is Saturday but I know this is not the case for the rest of the world. It fell off the other day and I haven’t gotten around to fixing it. I miss moving the little magnet to the current day. 🙂
Same kind of weather up here. I was uninspired but managed a couple of dog walks, some dish washing and some cooking. Otherwise the day was uneventful.
Glad to read that your back is better.
Enjoy the evening.
June 29, 2015 at 5:13 pm
Hi Caryn,
The one in my bedroom is also battery. It makes a loud clicking sound which took me a while not to notice. I usually check it to see what time I’m waking up.
I write on the little calendar and tear off the dat the night before so I can know if I have anything the next day. I have a play to see Friday and guests for the 4th and that’s it for the week.
The day finally got nice and sunny. It is a pretty late afternoon with enough of a breeze to keep the day from getting warm.
Have a great evening!
June 29, 2015 at 7:54 pm
I can’t live without a watch. Besides having to be in class during work at specific times, I want to know the time hourly when I’m off work, on vacation or on the weekends.
Pilots have to navigate which used to require a clock or a watch. Flying requires that you know three things two of which are dependent on time. Where are you now, where do want to go and what are you going to do when you get there. Today’s young pilots who have grown up with GPS don’t wear watches. The GPS knows and displays the time within a billionth of a second. In my day position reports had to be accurate within plus or minus three minutes. How did we ever get around with such crude equipment as a tick tock watch and a magnetic compass? 🙂 BTW The Apollo missions to the moon used computers with less than 8k of memory.
June 29, 2015 at 8:12 pm
Bob,
Vacation was, for me, when time didn’t matter. It was a change in routine which I loved. When I wasn’t at work, I refused to be controlled by time. I didn’t care what time it was unless I had something to do like an appointment.
Needing to know time at work is very different than needing to know time when you’re supposed to be at leisure. Some professions, like yours, require a strict use of time. Even school ran by the clock.
I am amazed by your last sentence.
June 29, 2015 at 9:06 pm
We’ve come a long way since 1969. If you remember the movie Apollo 13, the had to time the burn to re enter the atmosphere with his wrist watch and guide the space craft manually. Old school sest of the pants flying.
June 29, 2015 at 9:09 pm
Bob,
I love that movie and just got my own copy so I can show it this summer. That movie showed the ingenuity of the ground staff in coming up with the oxygen scrubber and that seat of the pants sequence of flying you mentioned.