True stories with a twist!

Posts tagged ‘errands’

TIMELY MANNER

 

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Why is it that when there is not a moment free, you think of all the things you wish you had time to do?

Why is it that when you have so much to do that you’re too busy to have telephone time with friends?

Why is it that some days you leave the house in early morning, and don’t stop until you have just enough energy to park the car, check mail and listen to phone messages?

UnknownBut when a threatening weather day rolls in it calls your bluff. Now you are forced to stay home.

Now you can do all those things you never have time to do. Here is a free day, a day you could accomplish all the things on your “to do” list. Clear out that refrigerator. Re-attach that button. Call for that appointment. Write that Thank-You note. Get going!

But you aren’t in the mood.

What does this mean?

Do you secretly want to wiggle out of work? Do you wish to whittle your way out of weighty calls? Do you secretly enjoy the scramble of struggle at home rather than live in a proper, pristine place?

Do you just want to be left alone? At least for a while?

My diagnosis is a case of “overwhelmingitis.” It happens every year about this time.

So, make a list, get organized and move forward. Get going; it will be done!

Soon it will be 2018 and you can make a few resolutions to change what you didn’t like about this year. It will be so much easier then.

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IT’LL JUST TAKE A MINUTE

“I’ll be right there; I’ll just be a minute.”

“I won’t be late; It’ll just take a minute to finish this call.”

“I’ll be ready to go as soon as I address this envelope. It’ll just take a minute.”

How many quick little jobs have to be done in one day? Nothing major, nothing earth shattering, nothing particularly fun or interesting. Only the briefest little tasks that “Just take a minute.” I can fill days; an entire week, with one task after another. Each one, I promise will, “just take a minute.”

And it’s true. Every little task does take only a minute. BUT there are dozens of them. It reminds me of a line in the old children’s book about cats by Wanda Gag: “Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats.” That’s how many “It’ll just take a minute” jobs there are to do all the time every day. Am I the only person who rejoices when an answering machine picks up my call instead of the person I am calling? When I speak to a machine I can leave my message without having to go through the time-taking task of inquiring about  the wellbeing of everyone in the family.

From the  point of view of the person waiting for someone else, I remember my mother calling us for dinner. If one of us yelled down from an upstairs bedroom,

“I’m ready. I just have to wash my hands.” She’d answer,

“You JUST? If you JUST, then you’re not ready. Don’t waste my time with your “justs.”

And if someone said,

“Alright, I’m coming.”

“Yes, so is Christmas,” was her terse answer.

When I was a young child I always thought that two minutes were longer than fifteen minutes. Because my father would leave us in the car with my mother, while he did his errands. He’d dash out of the car saying,

“I’ll just be two minutes.”

It was always at least fifteen. So naturally, rather than think daddy would ever exaggerate or fib to us, I learned the math lesson that two was greater than fifteen. The expression “I’ll just be a minute” actually means any time from a minute to an hour. This information should be widely disseminated. Then the next time someone says, It’ll just take a minute, the listener can go shopping, take a nap, or fill the gas tank.

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