Dad finds pocket planner can't help bottle time

Time is slipping away from me these days.

I'm trying to keep track of it, but it's getting harder and harder to do.

Becca and Bailey now have a fully scheduled life, full of everything from gymnastics to Girl Scouts.

Add in church functions, art club and choir and you've got a full plate of activities.

I've never been one to carry around a planner. I figured I could rely on my brain cells to keep a mental schedule of everything or at least count on my wife, Joni, to remind me.

But the scheduling has become so complicated that I begged Joni to put me out of my misery and buy me a pocket planner.

She did. Now, my life is thoroughly penciled in on my Day-Timer Navigator planner which actually is full of nighttime meetings and events too.

Becca's already got events scheduled through next spring.

Man's spent centuries trying to control time. We've gotten time split down to fractions of a second, but we still can't get a handle on it.

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, we're constantly trying to squeeze in a few more things. We don't have time to sit and smell the roses. We're too busy pruning them to get any real enjoyment out of the floral arrangement.

At any rate, I confess it hasn't taken long to get used to the planner although I'm still reluctant to write everything down for fear it would overwhelm me.

Man has always wanted to put time in a bottle and break it down into manageable parts. But that's more wishful thinking than anything else.

And writing down all those to-do things only makes each day seem busier.

I live for those days when I have some empty spaces on the pages.

Ancient man would have a hard time understanding our need for these pocket books with their evenly lined pages and helpful reference pages full of everything from a tipping guide to personal fitness tips that I don't read because I'm too busy reading the to-do list.

But the planner has been helpful, especially in keeping track of just where members of my family are at any given time of the day or night. It's truly a poor man's radar and I'm thankful for it even if it does seem to make me feel even more rushed.

Of course, there's more to life than a pocket planner.

Some people are too busy shouting to take note of scheduling problems.

In Madrid, Spain, there's plenty to scream about. Government leaders in the city of 3 million people want more quiet. They don't want exploding decibels. They're encouraging quiet in a public relations campaign called, "SSSHHH. Control your noise." The campaign started earlier this month and is scheduled to run through 2003.

Blue-clad mimes roam the streets, urging children and adults to speak softly.

Madrid's even got a guy -- Placido Perera -- who is head of noise at the city's environmental protection unit. After 30 years of studying noise, Perera's concluded that Madrid is definitely loud.

But then he's never met Becca and Bailey who have no need for microphones. They can be heard throughout our neighborhood.

At times, they break the sound barrier. In a car or on a cell phone, they can be downright loud.

Perhaps, we should import a few mimes from Madrid to try and get the message across to our kids that we don't need to bellow to communicate effectively.

So far, Becca and Bailey still are quiet challenged. But I figure it could change. One day I could get ear plugs, provided that I could fit them into my schedule.

Maybe then, I'll have something to shout about.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.