Time at home and settling in again

Mississippi Camellia

We have been home for a week and all is well, despite the snow last week. This southern trip was the first time we have stayed in place and that was a welcome experience at Bay St Louis, MS, Bay Hideaway RV, where snowbirds flock.  Our last day driving home from Chatham IL  was in snow but none accumulated on the interstate and traffic was easy.  Once home, the white stuff returned, leaving a build up of more than what was present in January when we departed, with these late winter storms.  When did snowstorms begin to be named?  I just noticed that this year.  Fortunately we are shielded   by our river bluffs, the 6-7 inches was Ol Man Winter's welcome  and a way to tune up Jerry's shoveling and blowing skills lest they became stagnant while we were south.  I suggested he just allow Dustin to deal with it; Dustin is an ambitious and capable young man who practices winter snow removal and summer lawn maintenance  for a reasonable fee while we travel .  Butt oh no, Jerry says it is good free exercise.  Fortunately snow is already melting and the past two days with temperatures in the higher 30 degrees I have had two great outside walks, even worked up a sweat and had to remove my parka hood and unbutton. 

White camellia bush, notice the spent white
petals all over the ground around the bush
 

The photos are from Long Beach, MS  the  camellias had bloomed late January and by early February were nearly spent, reminding me of what I have not seen since we left California, the beautiful camellias of Sacramento where their lovely blooms have been celebrated with an annual  festival.  Far as I know camellias do not grow in MN, how could they harbing spring in January or February from  beneath white snow.  I had forgotten how lovely they are.

Azaleas and daffodils were in full bloom in
AL where we spent a week to return to Fairhope, my favorite little town in the entire country.  I have been working on downloading ,  organizing trip photos which I wonder why I take, but then I consider blog fodder and many I have slapped onto Facebook, so easily from my so smart Samung phone and or tablet, but sooner or later, like paperwork they must be dealt with, downloaded, cropped, deleted, and organized.  Adding to tasks that bide their time until I have some to spare. 

Speaking of time in Bay St Louis, MS where we spent a month, the local artists and shops host 2nd Saturdays offering wide assortments of refreshments and beverages for an evening stroll through the boutiques and galleries.  The following time sculpture caught our eye...Jerry is especially fond of clocks and watches and courtesy of my late aunt Jinx and Uncle Carl has a small collection. This was a unique use of vintage and newer clocks. 

Time sculpture at Bay St Louis MS
 

.Whilst I have not forgotten my blog, I will try to find time to bring posts up to date....and use those photos.

Where time goes , tempus fugit, and other excuses

One of our many inherited antique clocks

Rolf-Dietmar Erhardt said   " All of us are aware of the phrases: "Well, that took a long time!", "That went fast!", "How much longer will that take?" and so forth. No conflict arises with the physical term of time, since we do have scales to monitor time, as we know it, with explicit accuracy. But, does time exist without the existence of a human being, who interprets what time is - with his human consciousness? Simply put, does time exist without someone reading the clock?"

What the heck is this thing we call time?   
     The one-after-the-other-correspondence of things.
     The succession of happenings, to be experienced as an irreversible sequence of events.       
       A  longitude of change,
       Incidents in nature and history.
        Something to be viewed, depending on scientific (philosophical) views, as finite or infinite, homogenous, divisible continuum, which      under specific points of view and appropriations act as a scheme of order.


All I know is I have been extremely  busy since we returned home  first of the month and have not been on blog which tugs at  me, but time is limited and I  have never been able to stretch a day beyond 24 hours. Someone might simply say, "oh use a planner, don't agree to so many things, and so on...."    Jim Croce sang about it in  1973, remember the ballad--Time in a Bottle also used by the Muppets in a comical routine..  sing along with me now,,,
If I could save time in a bottle  The following is an assessment of how time flies daily for me,  for those who wonder, (as I did in the past)  how can a person who is retired run out of time?  For one thing, I no longer arise at 4:30AM and get almost double the sleep I lost in the past.      
The first thing that I'd like to do Is to save every day 'til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you. 


If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do once you find them...... and that is my ear worm of the day.

                        
Begin with the 24 hours  each day                                                                         24

Slumber, "to sleep perchance to dream", 8 to 9 hours  or more, depends on how physically demanding  the day's activities have been                               -9

Each evening  1 or 2 hours pleasure reading                          - 2  

Now we are down to a balance of 13 hours available from which hours deplete --

-1 Waking up each morning, meditation/prayers, personal hygiene, Keurig brew, dressing for Curves workout,  making the bed prior to departure,  Jerry conversations

-2  Checking email, Facebook and reading my online newspapers                  

-2  Business papework our Financials, Estate work, business of and the like (can consume lots more time)  

-2.5 Working out/ and walking to do so  ( 1/2 this time if I drive)      

-1.5 Showering  after work out and dressing for the day 

-2.5 Our wonderful early spring weather means substantial outside  work  

-1.5 Domestic tasks like laundry, ironing, vacuuming, changing bed linens, unloading dishwasher, swabbing kitchen floor, dusting, etc.  I try to do a minimum daily because I have a fetish for a clean domicile and I do not have the attention span for  more time at that. 

-2 Planning/preparing meals, unless we are eating out 

-1 Eating and clean up afterwards 

-3.5 If  grocery or other  shopping beckons driving to and accomplishing    

-1.5  Nursing home trips for MIL, delivery laundry, other personal items, etc.

-1.5 Even a quick additional stop uptown to  post office/library while I'm  there  invariably expands with a conversation with someone about something  

-2.5 Special projects like the design of a book cover,  correspondence or photo sorting or closet or drawer clearing or research through records or online 

-2 Occasional  TV watching some evenings, varies depending on programs, March madness or a great NBA game or watching a movie/DVD 

-2  Visitors and this includes phone calls which I do ignore at times when I can't tolerate an additional distraction  

And well, there goes time despite multi tasking an hour here, a couple hours there and pretty soon the whole day is gone. I could use a 34 hour day. This is my free time, the time of my life, the time I coveted when career and family were all consuming and still there is just not enough of this thing we call time.  Frequently over the years others have told me that they cannot keep up with me--starting with my Mom when I was a child, that I do too much.  I suppose I do possess hyperactive tendencies,  all I know is I set a good pace of constant activity.   Any typical day is not typical to me and any day I always have a deficit of hours which is not inclusive of husband time and interruptions.  Ah time....there is just never  enough and I am careful to decline offers to  join many activities or organizations where there would be meetings.  I do  limit my time in the ones I to  which I belong . 

This was a clock from Uncle John which is very similar to
one my grandparents had...we have many clocks
just not enough time ever.

I also pledged to fix some of the genealogy particularly with  my female ancestors as March, honors  Women's History.  My ancestral tree/limbs/leaves on Ancestry has expanded so that  one log  in and  two to four hours vanish  along merrily as a fat worm pulled  from the wet springtime mulch by a robin.  March is filled with Birthdays for cousins and friends.  I spent  quite some time with greetings and a project for the  60h birthday for cuz Paul in  Colorado, for whom I  had old  photos copied and wrote  accompanying familial history he"d otherwise not know.  I have a new  found  cousin on my Ostrowski side (maternal grandmother) or Ostroskie as they spelled it, in CA of all places.  It has been great fun but time consuming meeting that limb through the photos Jacquie supplied. It occurred to me that as I wrote for Paul and as I fix my Ancestry.com link that I really am the family historian.  Much is on my  blog where people can discover for themselves and a great deal of that effort is attributable to Sepia Saturdays, which I really have missed first whilst traveling and now through NO TIME.


Currently I am engaged in another ongoing project that is  taking hours of time, the online class on the Constitution and Principles in which I have enrolled through Hillsdale College.  While lectures online are  about  an hour and the Questions and Answers another  30 minutes, the readings demand  more hours each day than I have been able to garner, putting me  sadly behind on the  research.  This is a most interesting course and something I have wanted to do for a long time, but never considering the time dedication involved.  I could just skim and do online readings, but that has never been my way as a student; my alter ego,  the old girl, Patty emerges hands on hips--""well you're not gonna skip over this are you?  Remember you need 100% on tests?"  And she goads me on to continue reading--it has probably  been  48 years since I last read the Federalist papers.  Grades and perfect scores mean nothing to me now, but still I  persevere.   I recall much of history teachings from earlier college and high school years  but am learning more such as  our founding fathers understanding of the true human nature...and the fact that they all  had a solid base in the same educational experiences whether self taught or schooled--they knew the classics.  They shared a similar foundation.  We do not have that today.  Oh,  I have been  getting all the questions  correct on each  quiz.  No one knows my score but me and Patty and she is quietly pleased, dancing her little celebratory hop  when that perfect score shows online. 

My thoughts  increasingly nag to get back to the blog especially before March departs because this is the  100th anniversary of the founding of the Girl Scouts.  I have more to say about that tomorrow.   Here is the link to the Girl Scouts Blog where they claim that 2012 is the year of the girl. Hey, let's hear it for the girl  http://blog.girlscouts.org/2012/03/on-monumental-100th-anniversary-girl.html

Oh yes trying to  compose in blogger which is acting up with a vengeance.....timeless.