“Well, as I said, time has no meaning here. So if you leave, you can go anywhere, any time.” – Star Trek: Generations
What do you call a rogue sheep with a machine gun? Lambo.
When I lived in Houston, my job was all consuming. It’s been my theory that people move to Houston for one reason: to work. The climate is difficult. The freeways are often lines of cars creeping along like Joe Biden in an elementary school. One upside is that there can’t be a (Some) Black Lives Matter® protest because the Houston Astros© always steal their signs.
When I was a Temporary Texan, my life was consumed by work – and it was stressful work. Each day brought a new crisis we had to solve. It got so bad that I left home early to avoid the traffic, so I got to work early. I left work late to avoid the traffic, so I got home late. A fourteen-hour day wasn’t uncommon. I put blood, sweat, and tears into that job, so it was good that I wasn’t working at a restaurant.
The last time I went out for dinner, I asked the waiter how they prepared the chicken for frying. “Nothing special. We just tell them they’re going to die.”
For many weeks, I was gone every hour that baby Pugsley was awake during a weekday. I would, however, catch up with The Mrs. when I got home. That was a priority. We knew what we were getting into when we made the move from Alaska. Moving to Houston was, for us, entirely about work. I should have known during the job interview that something was up: they asked if I could perform under pressure, but I told them I only knew Bohemian Rhapsody.
Most (not all!) weekends I was able to keep the work at bay. I’d sleep in on Saturday, and then we’d do something as a family. By Saturday night I felt, “normal” but by Sunday afternoon I’d realize that I’d have to go back in to work on Monday and repeat the whole thing again. That made me feel pretty gloomy – it felt like time was slipping away.
This was how Sunday evening felt when I worked in Houston.
One Sunday night, however, I was getting my things ready for the next day. I was looking for my dress shoes (I was in an office that required them at that time) and couldn’t find them. Since I always took them off at the same place, that confused me.
After looking in all the logical places, the only choice then was to look in all of the illogical places. When you live alone, everything is pretty findable. When you have a wife, things move around on their own. When you have children under seven? The toilet gets clogged with decorative clam shell soaps that The Mrs. bought.
So, when I found my shoes under Pugsley’s bed, I wasn’t really surprised.
I was, however, touched. As near as we can figure, Pugsley had come to the conclusion that I only wore those shoes when I was gone all day. As near as his Gerber®-addled mind could conceive, if I didn’t have the shoes, I could spend every day at home with him.
Not bad. And I was touched.
I tried to buy running shoes the other day – but the only ones I saw were stationary.
One of the ideas of wealth is money. And I was in Houston, like everyone else, to make money.
But there’s another idea of wealth: time.
There are a group of people who are driven by playing that game and devote themselves exclusively to their business. That makes sense. The world needs people who are single-minded in wanting to change it.
Most people have read about people like Edison who never slept more than seven minutes a night and spent most of his life at work while making a fortune, and Elon Musk who famously slept in the factory to get car production worked out. And Musk and Edison both have another thing in common: they both got rich off of Tesla.
Meanwhile, the GPS is saying: “Recalculating . . . recalculating . . . “
If that’s what they choose? Fine. The idea of spending time on their passion for business is exactly that – a choice. Just like having a finite supply of money gives you a set of choices of what you can do in life, there is another budget – a finite number of hours.
And that is life. Life is made up of those hours that we use. Just as inflation eats away at the value of money, distraction eats away at the value of life.
What kind of distraction?
Well, pointless things – think Twitter® and most of Facebook™. I was on Twitter© a while back, and found it was good at exactly one thing: making me irritated.
I even take this aversion to not wasting the hours and minutes of my life unless it was a conscious decision to absurd levels. For several years of my life, I ate something I didn’t like all that much for lunch because there was no line.
I hate the idea of waiting five minutes of my life when I don’t to. This still applies even if I waste those five minutes on something unproductive. For a long time, I avoided history – I just couldn’t see a future in it.
I’m reading a book about the history of lubricating oils and bearings. Best non-friction book I’ve ever read.
But now society is built on creating and feeding distraction to people – the more distraction that’s consumed, the greater the profit level for these companies. And these are not even distractions that make us feel better – but distractions that in many cases just consume time.
I’m not sure that the idea of a “balanced” life is one that exists in reality. A human life is built up in phases. The long languid summers of youth give up to days that are packed with all the trappings of a family and work and the fullness of life. When my youngest, Pugsley, heads out into the world, who knows what I’ll do with the time?
Perhaps I’ll spend it finding places to hide his shoes.
Hi John
Reading that bit about the Russians history reminded me of something I’ve really enjoyed. Hard Core History is a large collection of audio programs exploring many times in history from 2000BC to the present. If you have the time to listen to mp3 programs, I highly recommend it.
https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/
Thank you! I’ll have to give it a listen. More Russia in Friday’s post.
Time is a more precious commodity than money. It is amazing how flexible our monetary needs really are. We made a conscious decision decades ago that my wife would stay home with our kids and that meant we had to make “sacrifices” so my kids always had their mom around. Sometimes we only had one car, we were the last people to get smart phones, we didn’t go on expensive vacations.
I gradually made more and more money in corporate America and our expenditures went up, and then one day I couldn’t do that anymore. It took some time but we found that we didn’t need the stuff we spent money on. Now we are making, on paper at least, way less money than before but our lives are better in most respects. It is amazing how much money is out there to be made without having to sit in a cubicle or office somewhere.
I’m currently working to get my husband to retire. The thing is, after so many years of 6-day a week work, he has only two modes:
– Working from dawn till late at night
– Complete coma
No in-between. I’m working to find him some hobbies that he can enjoy. It’s mostly a way of getting him to social without:
– Working, or,
– Drinking
It’s a tough job. I’m GENTLY coaxing him to consider moving closer to the kids and grandkids. Spending more time with them would straddle the gap between too much work, and sitting in a chair, watching TV.
I was forcibly retired last July. I did sit around for a while because of the Covid-19 and ended up getting the Covid-25.
Some hobbies like woodworking take a bit of an outlay for tools to get started. Wood carving can be started for less than $100 for a couple of knives and a few chisels. Ebay is a good place to look. (That’s where I got most of my antique and vintage woodworking tools from and some of my carving tools.)
If you have a good sized yard, gardening? Relaxing and get some good produce in the fall.
Another speed of life. Sounds good. Oh, and I tried to comment, but your blog is one that WordPress (for whatever reason) won’t let me comment on.
That’s weird. Maybe I should check the settings or something.
No, it’s several sites- yours and Sovietmen, for two.
Ham radio is a reasonable hobby. There are clubs to join, equipment and accessories to buy, a certain amount of effort needed to learn the rules and earn the license from the FCC, and there’s a chance that you can be useful to your community if some disaster knocks out the commercial communications systems. Getting the license USED TO require learning to send and receive Morse Code, but that’s no longer true. Used equipment is cheap.
I’ve found that I can’t do as much woodworking as I might like due to arthritis from the repetitive motions of sawing and sanding, etc.
Linda, if it’s near Mayberry, go. If it’s not, convince your kids.
The Mrs. has (generally) stayed home with the boys. That’s been a blessing. Will it even be possible for the next generation? I’m thinking that Popular Opinion is against it . . . .
It was common accepted knowledge that many men who worked at high-pressure demanding jobs, when reaching retirement age, did not survive many months or years after that. In some part, it’s what makes the old corporate pensions and current social security function financially as well as they do (or did).
This seems to be correct. My paternal grandfather was the highest achieving male in a multi-generation family of males – the vast majority of whom lived into their 90’s. My grandad dies at 66 after retiring. He was so absorbed in his career all his life that he never developed any hobbies or outside interests other than bowling. When his bowling buddies died or quit he had nothing to live for, so to speak. My dad (who lived until he was 93) told me that he even made the comment when he retired; “I guess my life is over”. Self fulfilling prophesy?
Very true. The Mrs. even made a joke that I’d take my planner, and, on the last day before retirement, make one more checkmark and then die at the desk.
Doooooooone . . . . .
“Musk and Edison both have another thing in common: they both got rich off of Tesla”.
Your non pun puns are the best.
Funny how as we gain maturity in understanding work, our line of thought changes. Saluted the General at GMAC pretty much right out of college 4 years later I saw people doing the same thing you were in Houston but not taking weekends off. I knew right then I was not long for the company as I knew I wanted to be a family man.
Thank you, I was happy with that one.
Yup. I’ve maintained that barrier. Might have hurt my career some, but my kids know me on sight.
Your post hit a nerve. After years of construction management, which sometimes meant hard physical labor, and the constant demand of meeting deadlines under budget, I never realized how my life was mostly on auto-pilot. I was constantly near exhaustion, and Sunday was the slide downhill to a dread of starting another week.
I realized one day I didn’t car anymore. I could survive on retirement funds, and the hardest part was just facing the unknown life of retirement.. This lead to my current circumstance where I sometime forget the days of the week, and weekends are avoided for short getaways, since the weekend rates are too expensive. It’s a different life, but I’m satisfied with a peace I haven’t felt in decades. That’s a good thing.
And getting up everyday and doing whatever the hell you want to do is pretty nice. Forced out 6 years ago. To old to be considered for a job said forget it. Luckily I saved enough to begin this venture, they can have their cheaper new hires you get what you pay for.
I’m glad. That pace is a good change. My particular problem is my current motivators are work and this blog. As my sons have been incredibly competent, I haven’t mowed a lawn in years. And I’m not looking forward to it.
Maybe sheep?
Learning to Enjoy Life in a Downsized Living Situation is a skill I am already researching. The good is I never required expensive dining or vacation destinations to be happy. As long as the activity I am working on gives me enjoyment, I am good.
But I am definitely not the Philosopher Happy Laying on a Hammock – I need to be doing SOMETHING.
Good for you. And a dinner at McDonalds around here will buy you four ribeyes.
Why go to McDonalds?
I love your terrible jokes! Had to think about that waiter one a bit . 🤣 As a native Houstonian , I concur with your summation of life there.
Thank you! Here’s one: “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup. I broke my tooth on the zipper.”
Yup. Houston is big. I always felt so very small there.
Work to live or live to work? Maybe something between…Your call. I, for one, like to have some time to “waste” reading books, traveling, posting in a foreigner blog or just doing “nothing”.
And we’re glad you’re here!
I’ve done both. Working to live is a long day, unless it’s fun.
Time is the precious commodity. I am starting down the path of retirement as of a week ago. While many years spent at an all consuming career, I don’t foresee myself having any problems transitioning to only doing what I want.
Love the puns.
That’s good news. I like the blogging. I need another hobby on top of that, but it has to be stakes I’m willing to play for.
It’s also easy to develop expensive tastes when you are working hard. And harder to un-develop those tastes. I work two jobs. Initially it was to pay off debt. Then, when the debt was paid off, because I was in the habit. The second job I work for myself so I don’t have a boss or set hours. I have gradually tapered off the number of hours I am working in that job but I have also developed a taste for expensive wines and nice guns. Fortunately I have most of the nice guns I might want but the wine habit is harder to break. Cheap wines now taste, well, cheap. A couple more years and the house will be paid off and I’m figuring that, habit aside, I will be able to afford the wine on my main salary.
And the WP button is gone again. Is it just me?
So true! Good wine is . . . good. Fortunately, our house payment is looking smaller every year. In a few months it might be less than a sheet of plywood.
You moved from Alaska to Houston? Interesting. I moved from Houston to Alaska. I told my co-workers that Houston was too big and Texas was too small. Odd that none of them laughed.
Ha! Yup. We miss it, though our window to move back has probably closed . . .