Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’, into the future……..is one of those kinds of statements (thanks Steve Miller) that is painfully obvious (duh, let me know when it starts ticking into the past and you might have something) and true on one level, yet something we struggle to comprehend on a daily basis.
At least I do.
Time always seems to be slipping away on me, no matter how hard I try to lasso it and stop it from happening.
Of course a nasty procrastination habit is to blame for much of the problem, not to mention a casual approach to life that often ends up with one scrambling to get things done on time, you know, like on deadline, ahem.
Nevertheless as months, like this one, come to a close, one is too often proclaiming “Where did October go?” – in fact so much so that it’s become a bit of a joke in the newsroom whenever one tears another page off the daytimer on one’s desk.
I think in this industry, especially, we are prone to feeling like time is passing in a hurry as we deal with one deadline, after another, after another, after another, and so on.
And my age doesn’t help either as now that my kids are out of public school and minor sports and all the time and energy and focus of that time of life transitions into thoughts of “wow, how did that part of my life pass by so fast?” – you’re left kind of wondering about the fact that time seems to fast track while you’re busy dealing with life and such.
I think the pushing back of the time change a couple weeks doesn’t help either, it’s next weekend by the way, as the prolonged light at the end of the work day kind of fools us into thinking the onset of autumn is delayed somehow too.
Of course the good weather helps us with that thought process too, hey, we’ve hardly had a frost yet, but no matter how we set the clock, fall, and eventually winter will come to these parts.
Although sometimes, with all our modern technology and knowhow and manipulation of time changes and such, we think we can control more than we actually can. You know, like Mother Nature. She eventually rules.
Another factor that’s made me realize time keeps on slipping away no matter what tricks we try to ward it off is the fact that I just added an HD box to the television set in my bedroom.
I should probably explain.
Well, you see, it happens to light up and broadcast the time 24/7 from its little perch on my dresser. And it does this whether it’s actually turned on or not, just so you know because I already tried that.
It’s also quite bright so my wife’s already made me put a few books in front of it so it doesn’t bug her in the middle of the night.
But that’s not the real problem.
The real problem is that it’s the real time, which is approximately nine minutes behind the adjusted “Mitchell time” on my clock radio that is an attempt to fool me into at least occasionally thinking it’s the real time so I get going a little faster in the morning or to an event.
But how can I think that if I’m looking at the “real time” – at least when it’s not behind three books – a few feet away from me?
Luckily one of my many handicaps is lousy eyesight so it’s not a problem a lot of the time but I need my glasses to go to the bathroom and when I’m watching TV and when I’m basically doing everything other than sleeping so…….
Anyway, like I said, whether I keep my clock radio nine minutes ahead of the new device in my room or not is likely beside the point, time is going to keep slipping away on me whether I like it or not.
Looking forward to next weekend, though, trying to keep up with time is making me tired. I could use the extra hour of sleep.
