Extra time

Today while watching the telie, post attempted room cleaning, I got to thinking about spare time. I had much of it this weekend. I kind of feel like I wasted the long weekend, I didn't accomplish very much other than Jen's Longest Bike Adventure of the year, and obtaining some ridiculously delightful tan lines.

Society has so much free time now. I'm sure some would argue otherwise, but the things that keep us busy are often by choice. When putting my dishes into the dish washer I thought about how processes have changed with innovation and invention. My dishes are sitting in the dishwasher waiting for one of the 223-mates to press 'start' on the machine after it is full, my laundry was washing itself in the washing machine, and I was watching the telie. Had this been 100 years ago, my evening would have been quite different. The dishes would have been washed by me (or my well trained children), I would have been handwashing my clothes, and obviously not watching television. Granted, I could stil do these things now, but tonight I chose not to. Some clothing I do wash by hand (I won't even bother telling you how un-often these items get washed), and I do wash dishes by hand sometimes. I never put pots or pans in the dishwasher - take up too much room.

I don't like feeling unproductive. I feel like when there is a long weekend I should accomplish great things, or leave the Isle. PEI has been dragging me down a wee bit lately. I love the novelty of living on a small island, but sometimes I crave a little more in variety and feel very landlocked. That being said, I love the water and love knowing it's so close.

On the other other other hand (have I told you how many hands I have?), sometimes the water seem restricting. While PEI as a whole is somewhat shaped like a banana on it's side with the left end tipped a bit higher, Ch'town itself is a wee bit of a peninsula... or something. Water to the south (Ch'town Harbour), water to the east (Hillsborough River), water to the west (North [York] River). Go, look it up on Google Maps. I will wait for your return.

Granted the waterways to the east and west aren't that large but bleh.

On Saturday I joined a very small group and we biked from Charlottetown up to the north shore (all through Stanhope, through the National Park, then back to Ch'town) - about a 60-km adventure. Makes you realise how small PEI is though. That being said, that's a north-south ride... you can go much further going east or west.

Blah blah blah. Point of the entire thing is: I'm bored. It's been gloomy the past two days. A wise man told Ewan McGregor, who then told me, (via his book, sadly, not directly,) that rain is okay, as long as you don't let it rain in your head. I wish I had remembered that earlier, very good advise.

I have a rather stiff/sore neck from... something.

I must return to work tomorrow. I'm craving something bigger than that. My contract finishes in two weeks.

O_o

Oh, Monday night blahs. Last May long weekend I biked across the entire province.

I'm heading to America-land and Upper Canada soon. That'll be good :)

Sometimes I wonder if my expectations for life are too high. I want a job I love, I want to be on vacation for eleven months of the year, I want a bloke that thinks I'm wonderful (and vice versa), I want to explore, I want to learn, I want to help people, I want what I do to make others smile... perhaps the secret to getting what you want is to give.

Sometimes I get frustrated that there is so much that I do not know. There is also so much I once knew but do not know any longer. I don't remember how to use a graphing calculator, I don't remember the two ways one can amortize fixed assets (straight-line versus... something that has to do with a percent rather than fixed number), I don't remember how to speak Spanish very well. I understand you lose knowledge when you don't use it, but what am I putting into the newly emptied compartments? Something else? Which is better - the old or the new?

Somewhat related, I'm convinced spellcheck is making me stupid, particularly in programs such a Microsoft Word that autocorrect common spelling mistakes.

I was thinking about typewriters a few days ago. Now obscelete, but image at one point in your life being presented with a typewriter. The mass production of hand writing. You somewhat become a bit more like everyone else, for everyone has the same face for their writing.

I need inspiration. Or more so, I need to inspire myself.