Tag Archives: time

Double dipping

Leave a reply

Had 2 long drives today, the first one was 2.5 hours and the second one was 1.5 hours. Of the 4 hours, about 45 minutes was spent on the phone to my sister, and most of the rest of the time I was listening to a book. I love solo drives now that I mostly listen to books rather than reading them. The road becomes an endless stretch before me, and time drifts away as I listen… my only interruption being Siri’s voice occasionally giving me commands from Google Maps.

I love to double dip and both enjoy a drive and also enjoy listening to a book at the same time. The drive becomes a pleasure rather than a chore, and the kilometres disappear… time passing faster because of my involvement in my book.

Now I’m where I need to be, and the journey was both effortless and enjoyable.

Flight Time Machine

Leave a reply

Yesterday I wrote ‘Flight time’ and said, “Planes are time machines. I can spend 10 days visiting Toronto from Vancouver after a 4.5 hour flight, or I could spend 8-9 days days travelling there and back and less than 2 days in Toronto. Planes don’t just save time, they create it.”

In a conversation with Joe Truss this morning he mentioned that according to Albert Einstein I was speaking literally as well as metaphorically. The faster I move, the slower time goes for me, and so airplanes are actually time machines.

To me this exaggerates the point, it makes the point more poignant. Every time we speed things up, or whenever we ‘save time’, we are essentially creating little time machines… although we can’t actually travel back in time, we can only speed up and slow down our experience of time.

So, airplanes really are time machines, and I just got in one. I’ll see you 5 hours into my future… though I can’t tell you how long that will be for you. 😆

Flight time

1 Reply

Tomorrow I am taking a plane trip. Two weeks ago I had my first ride in a helicopter. I think it is amazing how we’ve learned to defy gravity and transport ourselves via air travel.

In a way, these flying machines are time machines. You hop in them and they take you great distances that would have taken hours longer if you went by car. Six to 7 hours in a car evaporates into an hour in a helicopter. A four to five day trip across most of Canada can be flown in about 5 hours.

Planes are time machines. I can spend 10 days visiting Toronto from Vancouver after a 4.5 hour flight, or I could spend 8-9 days days travelling there and back and less than 2 days in Toronto. Planes don’t just save time, they create it.

It’s pretty magical.

Packing and unpacking

Leave a reply

How much time do we spend in preparation for travel and events? I’ve got a 24 hour turnaround from one trip to the next and I’m thinking of everything I have to do before and during that time. From packing up our camping gear to the long drive home to laundry, it seems my mind is more on what I have to do than it is on what I’m actually doing.

I’ve been thinking a lot about being fully present recently, and I’m realizing how often my mind drifts to ‘other than now’. Reflecting, planning, preparing, and generally thinking about ‘not now’. I realize preparation for something in the future is important, and arriving somewhere unprepared is unpleasant… but I also think I waste a lot of time and energy not being fully present.

Now if you’ll excuse me, future me needs me to go have a good workout. Present me will do my best to enjoy it.

Restless relaxation

Leave a reply

I’m relaxing in a hammock, in the shade, at a campground, listening to a playlist titled ‘Writing 2’, and I’m restless. I dealt with a work issue earlier. Nothing challenging, just needed to give some quick guidance around an issue and all is well. Still, that put my head in a bit of ‘work mode’ and now I don’t feel like I’m relaxing, but rather that I’m being unproductive.

Stupid… I know.

But that’s where I go sometimes. I get into a mode where relaxing feels like ‘not doing anything useful’. And so, music on, blogging app open, and I can suddenly feel productive. I’m writing. The good news is that this actually feels relaxing. I’m still in the hammock, I’m comfortable, and my impulse to be productive will be a little more subdued after I hit the Publish button.

I think it’s time to head to the lake now, and switch to my audiobook. Again, a chance to feel like I’m doing something… useful. Because I don’t know how to relax doing nothing.

Music and time

Leave a reply

There are songs that send me back in time. I hear them and I’m suddenly in another era.

‘Heart of Glass’ by Blondie or Bob Marley’s ‘I Shot the Sherif’ takes me back to 7-9 years old.

Led Zeppelin’s ‘All of my Love’ sets me back into my friends house, it was 1979, the album In Through the Out Door came out and my friend called me to say “Get over here and listen to this.” Then he played ‘All of my Love’ over and over while playing and perfecting the piano part.

‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)’ by Dead or Alive makes me think of a dance floor and New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ sends me back to a university ski trip that I’d be better off not remembering… end yet I love the flashback I get.

Speaking of skiing, I got to know my wife on trips up to Whistler where she shared a group rental chalet. I remember our weekend drives to the chalet every time I hear R.E.M.’s ‘Night Swimming’.

Music is a powerful memory builder, and some songs take me back in time. Do they do that for you?

Fishing and time

Leave a reply

There is a special type of time distortion that happens when I go fishing. First of all, it’s not something that can be rushed. You’ve probably never heard the phrase, “Hurry up and fish.” Fishing takes patience, and time goes slowly.

Time also shifts a different way for me when fishing. I can get nostalgic about past fishing experiences, and feel like a kid again. I can get enveloped into a different world where time goes backwards and I feel young again.

And then there is the simple appreciation of the time spent fishing, whether in solitude or with a friend. Fishing time doesn’t need to be filled with conversation. There is comfortableness in silence. There is the sound of casting and reeling which symbolizes the passage of time, like a ticking clock, it can be heard again and again. Until the pattern is interrupted by catching a fish… speeding up time and bringing a new sense of urgency to the situation.

And here’s the really wonderful thing about fishing: even if I don’t catch anything, it was still time well spent.

Go, go, go

Leave a reply

The year has come to an end. Almost. Our grad is tonight night, I have a second grad to attend tomorrow night, as well as a couple luncheons… and the ‘To Do’ list seems endless.

There is always so much to do at the end of the year, but there are also celebrations and gatherings that need your full attention. That’s the trick, how do you squeeze everything in, and still give everything the time and commitment it all deserves?

You’d think I’d have it all figured out by now but I don’t. I’ll just put my head down and make the most of it. Friday afternoon will be here soon enough, and I’ll pick up all the pieces after the long weekend. The most important thing this week is fully committing to the task at hand and to the events I attend. Worrying about the next thing robs us of the joy and celebration of the end of the year. Go, go, go doesn’t work unless you spend time at each place you go to.

Reflections of the past

Leave a reply

I noticed it just as I was hitting ‘send’. My daughter had sent a Snapchat from a cottage she was leaving, a quick note to her family to say that she enjoyed her little getaway. I sent a response photo, a quick selfie as a replay with a comment like, ‘Hope you had fun’ written over the image. I didn’t pose. I didn’t concern myself with how I looked. It was only a quick picture going to my family, and so I just clicked the photo, wrote the text, and sent the image off to the group chat… knowing that it would disappear just after my family saw it. That’s the thing about Snapchat, unless one of my family saved the image in the chat, it would be gone after they look at it.

Except, for a split second before I hit the send button I saw something I didn’t expect. I saw a reflection of my grandfather in the image of myself. This was unusual, because I don’t really look like him. Sure, I often see reflections of my dad in my own reflection, we have similar traits and they seem to converge as I age, but I don’t have a lot of similar features to my grandfather, my mother’s dad.

I’d only seen this once before, years ago, and again on Snapchat. I used the aging filter and for the first time ever I saw a resemblance to my grandfather when I added about 25 years to my current age. But this time there was no filter, no gimmick, just a quick, unposed image of myself and a peek of my grandfather looking back at me.

It has been almost a quarter of a century since my grandfather passed away. Just over 38 years since the other one passed. That amazes me, because some of the memories of them still feel close. A friend recently shared this about aging, “The days seem longer, and the years seem shorter.” This resonates with me. A day seems to last about a day long, it doesn’t fly by, but the years have. My reflection in the mirror is somehow older than it should be. The man looking back has seen more years than I expect him to see.

It was just a quick glimpse of my own reflection, but one that has me reflecting on how quickly time passes. One that has me appreciating those who have been part of my life, and are gone, as well as those who are here with me now. The years are short, but they are lengthened by the memories we form, the moments that are not just ordinary. If we don’t make efforts to connect with others and create special moments, then those moments are nothing more than Snapchat memories… gone moments after we look at them.

Time in cars and with friends

Leave a reply

Yesterday I drove 40 minutes each way to spend just over an hour and a half with friends. They were visiting from Ontario and I saw them Saturday, but it was a short visit and so I wanted to connect again.

I ended up chatting with a cousin the whole drive there, and I listened to a book on the way back. Time well spent in the car.

But more importantly, I got to chat with my friends. We had a coffee, went for a walk, bought some pastries… and we talked. We spent time some wonderful, albeit short together. I spent about 15 more minutes with them than I did in the car. It couldn’t be longer because they had to pack up, check out of the Airbnb and catch a plane. But it was long enough. It was a wonderful reconnection.

Later, my wife and I went to wish her sister a happy birthday. That was about 45 minutes in the car for an hour and a half visit. Again, well worth the drive.

Ive got a full tank, when are we meeting next? 😜