I’m a bit of a time geek. On one hand I know that time is an arbitrary unit of measurement assigned to any random moment of existence, and quite often I curse this human invention (usually when I want to be somewhere and it seems to be a long way off due to the time between me and whatever “it” is). However, on the other hand I am always aware of the current time. I need to know what time it is, no matter where I am. And I think it’s the pre-occupation with time that is slowly driving me nuts.
I left work on my lunch hour at precisely 12:30 p.m. I normally do this at noon. By leaving at noon, I neatly divide my work day into two even halfs: four hours in the morning, four hours in the afternoon, then ain’t we got fun. However, because I left for lunch at 12:30, I am now quite giddy with the fact that my afternoon half of the day is shorter than the morning half of the day, which means I will be closer to quitting time when I sit back at my desk at precisely 1:30 p.m.
I guess it’s the little things.
I’m constantly running a countdown clock in my head as well. For example, I usually have a running tab in my brain that has things like “Twelve days and eight hours until our big visit” or “76 days until spring”. I usually round to the nearest day when it’s over than two weeks. I allow myself that luxury.
Now I’m not going to freak out by yelling “Wapner Time! Wapner Time!” and start rapping on the door of a house in the middle of a cornfield the next time I’m in Oklahoma or anything. My timeliness doesn’t go down that path. Yet. But my touch of OCD keeps my preoccupation with time even more interesting as I need to have all clocks within eyeshot in perfect synchronization with one another. Part of this stems from my collection of old school clocks that are wired throughout the house; they all advance in unison, once a minute, just like they did in the elementary and high schools of days gone by. But in today’s digital era, where every electronic item has it’s own clock following it’s own rhythm, I’m presented with a greater challenge of trying to make all the digital displays advance in unison with the school clock collection. It’s become a weekly chore of synchronizing the microwave, stove, alarm clocks and one quartz clock we have with the school clock collection system, which is synchronized to all the computers, which are synchronized with the atomic clock in Colorado.
There will come a time when I will just have to sit back and enjoy the moment without assigning a series of numbers and a flashing colon to it (why does that last part sound dirty to me?) Until then, does anyone really know what time it is?
