Time well spent

Back when I was little, Mom, Dad, Mick and I would all pile in the car and head to some lake to go fishing. If it was a close lake, there was no big deal. But if it was to a lake farther away, it just seemed like it took forever. Dad drove really slow, and he wasn't in any hurry. And then when we went to a private lake, Dad had to stop and visit with the owner. What I wanted Dad to do was walk up, ask if we could go fishing and then leave and go fishing. But Dad had to talk about the haying, the cattle, the weather and on and on. It seemed like he would visit away half of the day when we could be fishing. But looking back it wasn't wasted time. It was time well spent.

Most of the time I don't have access to a charger for my cell phone during the day so later I check the amount of charge left. The other evening we were expecting a storm, so I checked the charge on my phone, and it was down to 26%, and when it's that low it seems like it can go to 10% in a heartbeat. So I plugged it into one of those energy storage things. It was up to 70% almost immediately. But the thing is, when I'm gardening or cutting wood or working, I don't burn through my phone. But when I sit and stare at Facebook or watch videos or other similar things, I really burn up my phone usage. Wasted time!

Now, there are times when I call my sisters in Nebraska and my brother and visit with each one for half an hour. (Maybe an hour.) That burns up my phone. But comparing gawking at FB to visiting with loved ones is really a stupid comparison. It's like comparing a time burner to productive time spent. Now there are times when FB is time well spent, but I'd have to say most of the time it's time wasted. Many times we gripe and complain on FB and the silly thing is we're preaching to the choir. Most of those who are friends of mine believe pretty much like I do, so why preach to them?

But FB isn't our only time waster, if that's a word. I get a number of magazines and catalogs so it's hard to keep them all read. So I lay them in a pile to read later. The sad thing is later never comes, so the pile grows and grows. So what I try to do is read them or check them out when they come and then make the decision whether to save for later. If there is one article in a magazine I like, I try to tear it out and read and maybe save and file.

Several years ago I got some green coffee beans that were already a couple years old. So I roasted some and tried them. They really left a lot to be desired, but instead of tossing them I hung them up for later. A couple years later rolled around, and I roasted some more of them. They hadn't improved so I tossed them, which is what I should have done years ago. I wasted time.

This year we planted cucumbers along the sides of the tunnels like normal, and little by little the bugs killed them. But we planted more in the dead ones' place and ate off them till the bugs ate them, too. Normally we plant cucumbers on a fence and grow them vertically. But I got this idea to plant them like normal and let them spread on the ground. Bugs aren't as bad so we've been enjoying European type cucumbers for the past month and should continue to enjoy them clear up into November. Time well spent.

I can't tell you how to spend your time, but one thing I can tell you is that at the end of the day you will be more satisfied if it's time well spent.