Wanted–spare minutes!
By Mike Jastrzebski
As a writer I often let my imagination run wild. Lately, I've been imagining an alternative world where time is a commodity traded on an open market. Feeling lazy today and don't want to do much? Sell an hour. What the hell, you weren't going to use it anyway. Got a project that's going to take a little longer than planned, go online, buy 180 minutes, and get the work done before going to bed.
I know I'm not the only one who would love this world. Just think what would have happened if the White Rabbit could have bought a few minutes.
So why the sudden obsession with time? The boat. My wife Mary retired last Thursday and we thought we'd get started right away on boat projects. Then I was asked to be on the e-book panel at SleuthFest this past weekend and suddenly it was Monday. Three days of fun, friends, and maybe a few drinks, but no work on Rough Draft.
Okay I thought, there's always Monday-but Monday's our beach day. We decided on a compromise. Morning at the beach, and that afternoon we'd go apply for our passports. It wouldn't be work on the boat, but we can't leave the good old USA without the passports. Unfortunately, despite what the post office website said, our local office doesn't take the photos, and how was I supposed to know I would need a phone number and address of someone besides Mary on the passport application. Also, although I could come within a year or so of guessing my parent's birth years, we had to return home for the information.
So Tuesday we drove back to the post office and then spent a couple of hours on the computer trying to find a good price for a flight so Mary could fly home for a few days to help her sister get her mother's house ready to go on the market.
Wednesday we had some more running around to do and finally tomorrow we plan to start the work on the boat. We've done this before, so we know how easily time slips away.
We spent five years working on the boat before we came down the river system from Minnesota.
And five months repairing the boat after Hurricane Katrina put Rough Draft into a neighbor's backyard, so we know how fast time slips away. It's worrisome, but we'll get a handle on things and the work will get done. Still, I sure do wish I could buy those extra minutes. I'd pay a couple of month's royalties from my book sales for an extra week of time to be used whenever I needed it.
Oh-oh, there goes that damn imagination again. What if I could make a pact with Satan to have all the time I needed in the next month to work on Rough Draft? Wait a minute, am I nuts? My soul's got to be worth at least a brand new boat. But then I realize I've seen that movie. I'd end up spending all my energy trying to get out of the pact and end up with the same old boat and nothing to show for those free hours. Guess I'll just do things the old fashioned way and get started on my projects tomorrow.
What about you? What would you do if you could buy all the minutes you wanted? Would you blow your wad on a couple of extra hours?
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