The Absence of Time
I have half an hour until I leave work for the day. Half an hour until I pull on my coat, bike helmet, and gloves, and do battle with the evening traffic in town. I called home a few moments ago, and received my ordersI'll be stopping at the supermarket on the journey home to get something for dinner.
It's been a crazy weekand it's only Wednesday. It feels like the entire week so far has been an endless rush from one thing to anotherfrom one place to another. Work has been equally crazyhelping other developers, answering support calls, being parachuted into projects to dig people out of holes, and generally getting nowhere fast with any of my own work.
I need to find more time somehow. Maybe I'll colour in the period between 10pm and midnight on the clocks at homeand explain to everybody that when the hour hand gets into that segment of the clock-face, it's “me time”, and I'm not going to help anybody with anything unless it's an emergencyand no, washing your damn school uniform because you spilled yoghurt down it is not an emergency. Certainly notmy emergency. You can wear it like a badge of honour for the rest of the week”LookI still haven't figured out how to get the spoon into my mouth”.
While on that subject, I should probably put a shout out to our middle daughter, who absolutely cannot eat toast with chocolate spread on it without ending up with hilarious chocolate Cheshire Cat whiskers painted across her cheeks. She never learnsI don't think she ever will.
I have ten minutes left. Ten minutes until I lose my temper with thoughtless motorists on their way home. Riding through the evening traffic is kind of an exercise in self preservation. There's this sixth sense when you're on a bike in townknowing that people are going to walk out in front of you, or knowing that a motorist is going to pretend you're invisible. The new age hippy lot would probably say it's to do with auras and whatever elseI think it's just a general expectancy that everybody else will behave like an idiot most of the time.
I'm wondering what I'm going to get for dinner. Curry perhaps. We haven't had curry for a while. Maybe I'll pick up some “extras” on my way around the supermarket (and by “extras”, we all know I'm talking about chocolate and wine, right?).