No Time...

I’ve learned to live in a timeless world.

I removed the clock from my taskbar. I did that not long after I started working here. I did that because I was sitting there looking at the time all day. Not good.

I didn’t know you could do that – remove it from the task bar I mean. I knew you could stare at it. But a guy I work with, let’s call him Lawrence, though I’m not sure why we have to call him anything given that his role here is done, I sat with him at his desk and noticed that his PC screen didn’t show the time. That’s what gave me the idea – that plus the fact that I was staring at it all day.

My watch strap broke, that’s another thing. I took it to the kiosk where I always get watch batteries. I can’t fix that! He said. That’s a Timex! It has a special strap! I don’t sell those! I thought about buying some exclamation points. So I tried a different kiosk, at a different shopping plaza. I can’t fix that! He said. And on we went. So I popped into Zeller’s and picked up a Timex strap. Here I said. Put this on. Wrong kind! He said. Sure it’s Timex! He said. But it’s not the right kind!

So I’ve stopping looking at the time. That’s not to say that I never know what time it is. I’ve got an alarm clock that rings in the morning – well it doesn’t “ring” exactly, it’s a clock radio – and it’s set to one time for Sunday and another for Monday – Friday. No alarm on Saturday, except this discarded strapless digital watch that sits on my night table and beeps every morning just after 6:30. It’s losing time, that one, slowly, and eventually it’ll be 7:00 for sure. But I hear it (beep beep beep) unless the fan is on, because the fan is louder than the beep, though usually I’m up already. Yes I’m up at 6:30 Saturday morning.

Beyond that I have reminders that Outlook pops up all day long.
· 8:00 AM – start working
· 8:30 AM – you’ve been sitting at your desk for 30 minutes; time to really start working [sic]
· 9:30 AM – get coffee
· 10:00 AM – Have some water
· 12:00 PM – Have more water
· 12:30 PM – have lunch
· 1:30 PM – Lunch is over
· 2:00 PM – Aren’t you thirsty again?
· 3:30 PM – go grab some fruit from the kitchen
· 4:00 PM – it’s 4:00 PM
· 4:55 PM – Think about leaving
· 5:00 PM – bye

And places that I’m in have clocks, and if I look at them well then I look at them, that’s not my fault, I didn’t put them up there. And sometimes I have to be somewhere at a specific time, and I can’t be late so I have to figure out what time it is, and sometimes the bus only comes once every 40 minutes or so so I have to know whether to wait or find another bus or walk, and if I arrange to meet someone at 7 then I need to know when it’s 7, I even need to know when it’s before 7 so I don’t make him wait, and if I put something in the oven then I must keep track of the time to know when it’s ready, and if I want to get enough sleep then I have to set a time to go to bed, and I have to know when that time comes around...

Man I’m obsessed with the time...