Saturday, September 26, 2009

Slippin', slippin', slippin'...


"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977)
Today flew by. I have no idea where the time went. My uncle called to see how my grandmother was doing and asked, "What did you do today?" I was stumped. There is was five o'clock, the day was gone, and I really hadn't accomplished anything.
Ok, I made some vegetable stock, but the prep takes about 5 minutes so that didn't take up my time. I baked a cake. 20 minutes, tops. I made breakfast for myself, my mom and my grandmother. It was just a big pot of oatmeal with cherries and walnuts, so that was maybe, maybe 10 minutes start to finish.
I had about a two hour talk with my husband.
What happened to the rest of the day?
I cleaned all the fast food detritus out of the front seat of my car - again 10 minutes, tops.
This has been a problem since the accident. Time flies, literally. I no longer have the ability to accurately project how long it will take to complete a task. I also lose time. At least that's what it feels like.
Time passes differently now. I know it's just something with the way I perceive the passage of time, but it feels like my life suddenly got switched to fast forward. This, of course, throws off many things. Getting dressed in the morning. Heck, getting showered in the morning. I now find it necessary to put a clock in the bathroom where I can check it while I'm getting showered or taking a bath. If I don't keep checking the time while I'm getting ready to leave for an appointment I will, invariably, be late.
I've also found it necessary to add an extra 15 minutes to my travel time. This doesn't happen all the time, but I try. I guess I'm driving slower than I used to. That's not surprising, given the accident and the fact that I'm terrified in cars, but still, it's not something that you'd necessarily think of when getting read to go somewhere. Believe me, it's better to be early, than a) be late, or b) get panicked and end up freaking out on the highway. I've done that enough times, if I can control a situation that might lead to stress and panic, by all means, I'm going to do it.
I don't know how to correct the time issue. If it's not corrected itself by now, it probably never will. This is yet another case of "this is how I am NOW". It's just that I'm used to being much faster than I am now. Now I'm S-L-O-W, in more ways than one.

1 comment:

  1. Not being there I can't dispute you saying everything you did only took 10 minutes, but unless it was instant oatmeal it took more than 10 minutes- same with cleaning out the car-I think you're leaving out the getting ready to start time and the getting ready to end time. Tonight I came across a list of people from Pottsville who write blogs- it didn't seem like I spent much time looking and reading but it's over 2 hours now and I've only read a few of yours and a few of DiCello's and a few of Sophy's. I had read a few of Trout's over the years- he's a bright guy for witty writing. It was good to run into a few others- like you. I grew up in Pottsville but it was a much different place back then- better in many ways. Everytime I go back to visit at least one more place has been torn down for a parking lot. In the early 70's they tore down the Y which had a basketball court, a gym, a swimming pool, a cafeteria, a short running track over the BB court, rooms to rent- lots of stuff and now they're busy patting themselves on the back because they're almost back to where they were over 30 years ago.

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