Time to Spare?

Daylight Savings

How are we all feeling this Monday morning after losing an hour and having our schedules screwed up due to daylight savings time?

Every year I tell myself I’m going to go to bed an hour earlier in order to stay up with this change.  But does it happen?  No.  It just seems too difficult to get everything done in the day, live life, and still have an hour to spare.  I got to thinking of some productive things I could do with 1 hour of free time. Time to do the things I never seem to have the time to do these days:

Read a book.  I currently have 3 books that I am reading.  One is a heavy duty (big) book from Ken Follett.  It is a great book, and I have read several of his series (beginning with Pillars of the Earth) but it takes me a while to read them due to their depth, storylines, etc. Therefore, I read other books in between with lighter fare.  The other is an autobiography from William Shatner.  I really liked the original Star Trek series, when I was a kid, and he’s pretty hilarious in the reality series “Better late than never”.  The third one is a book about World war II which goes against my rule of reading 2 “heavy” books at the same time, but it fell into my lap and I am really enjoying the factual insight as told by Bill O’Reilly.

Clean the garage.  It’s actually quite therapeutic for me when I get around to doing this.  I crank up some classic rock, pop open a beer, and get to work.

Figure out how to get all of my pics off of all of my old phones and store them on a flash drive/thumb drive.

Figure out how to get more songs on my old iPod.  I still love that thing.  I know, I now have an Iphone that has countless music options.  But years ago, I put a lot of good music onto my Ipod.  I still have a lot of room on it, and if I were a techy (or had the time to research it) I could figure out how to put more songs from my cd’s on it.

Wash the car.  I actually did do this on Sunday but we kind of cheated and took it to The Rave Car Wash on the corner of Orchard and Center street.  I’m just saying I could do this more often with an extra hour.

Go for a walk.  My mother in law walks the “trail” at Chambers Bay on a regular basis.  My wife and I have done it a couple of times.  It’s a really good “workout” and the scenery is more beautiful than I can put into words.

Go golfing.  I can never seem to find the time.  Of course, an hour isn’t enough time to put in 18 holes at a large course, but maybe 9 holes at “The Highlands” or even hitting a bucket of balls at the Gig Harbor driving range.

Clean the barbecue.  Yes, it’s getting close to that time!  (I hope). I know a lot of folks BBQ year round, but it’s not the same as having your whole patio or deck open with the sun shining and family and friends around.

Add up all of the sales tax on receipts for the year for income tax purposes.  ‘nuff said!

Clean the home office.  I just don’t understand how that thing can get so messy and cluttered in such a short time!  Sometimes it looks like a mess even after I’ve cleaned it!

Paint a picture.  Once in a while, I used to watch Bob Ross on TV.  He’s the guy with the afro who does paintings of landscapes.  He takes you through the painting from beginning to end, making it look so easy that you’re convinced you can do it.  I’m fairly artistic, so I was inspired to take it up several years ago.  I did a few paintings (mostly water colors) but now there my easel sits, along with all of the supplies.  Just can’t seem to find the time for that anymore.

Call an old friend or a family member you haven’t talked to in a while.

Clean/organize the closet.  Something I really don’t want to do at all,  I’m just saying….with an extra hour……

Go for a drive.  The mountain, the ocean, Point Defiance………

Some Things to Think About

As I was resetting our clocks on the microwave, alarm clock, vehicles, watches, outdoor yard clock (actually it is a 2- sided clock so every daylight savings time I just rotate it to the other side) I thought about what I could do with an extra hour of time.  Now, I know there are much more profound things I could do with my time, but I thought if I put some real things down in black and white it would be a start.  As we bring ourselves out of the “dark ages”  (pardon the pun), and consider abolishing this silly rule, perhaps we can all think about setting aside an hour, and what we will do with it, when this day rolls around again. Except for this time,  we won’t have to reset our time clocks- figuratively and literally.