Time wasters

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Cource: clker

When I get to the pearly gate (yes, I’m going there! No snickering please) I wonder what I will regret most. Actions (probably not) or those things that you do because you have to or you should. Wasted time when you could have been solving world peace.

Like brushing your teeth. I have an electric toothbrush with a timer. Two minutes in the morning and two in the evening. That’s a lot over a lifetime. Time I’ll never get back but I haven’t had a cavity in decades. OK, silver lining.

Hair fussing. Some people are wash and go. Not me. I’m wash, styling goo, dryer with gadgets, fluff, spray, fluff, swing head this way, swing head that way, still don’t look like Meg Ryan. Yeah, that’s not going to change. Maybe I don’t want to see the tally of all the time spent on hair!

Traffic. OMG! There is no good side to this one. No silver lining. It doesn’t make me healthier or prettier. Just hoping to avoid road rage shootings. Some might say it helps me get centered because there is nothing else I can do. (I have a bridge to sell those people!) Perhaps it improves my singing voice. Nope. No rock group is banging at my door, looking for an old lady singer! More time I won’t get back. Boogers.

Doctor’s appointments. These are necessary but the wait isn’t. If I have to schedule time why can’t they stick to it? Sitting in a germy waiting room is not my idea of quality time. Again I could be working on world peace or saving the whales.

Cleaning litter boxes. I have mixed feelings on this one. I am a very faithful servant to the cats but this job is my least favorite. They get a kick out of watching me scoop their poop. It puts me in my place. They are very sadistic creatures although I swear one pooped in the form of a heart last week. (No, I didn’t have it framed!)

Most of all, exercise. Hate exercising. Tennis, racquetball and all that is fun but not plain exercising. The kind where you move body parts just to move them. Some people can get into this. No me. I force myself to do this so I can have a mocha latte afterward and maybe a bear claw. The silver lining are the friends I meet (who also hate exercising) and topics for blog posts. I get a lot of my cynical medical information there too. Oh yes, it keeps me healthy (so they say).

What are your least favorite (or favorite) time wasters?

 

 

78 thoughts on “Time wasters”

    • I have some friends with wonderful hair. My fav is a friend of Italian descent. Full thick hair with a wave. She can do anything. A shag is wonderful on her. She can get a perm and gets soft curls, no frizz. Bobs are smooth. Hair envy is real.

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  2. Well, here is the good news: When you get to heaven, you won’t have any regrets whatsoever 🙂 The earthlings will be left to their own devices, and you will have an eternity of bliss with the former things being nothing but the past. So it is said that in heaven, there is no memory of your earthly life, only eternal bliss that which is experienced outside of time. 🙂

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  4. I think that all of the time that goes into maintaining our appearance, like hair appointments, daily skin and hair care and fussing with clothing, and cooking healthy meals and watching diet and exercise…I guess I just wish we didn’t need to think about these things. Each and every day…I don’t think of myself as vain until I think of how much time I do devote to these things. 🙂

    I don’t have a litter box to take care of on a daily basis, but when I take care of my friend’s cat when she travels, I really do hate that little chore. 🙂

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    • Since retirement I’ve gotten more lax with makeup. I don’t wear it unless I’m going someplace special and sometimes I forget it. I try to keep my skin healthy so I don’t need as much. I suffer from dry eye so eye makeup is irritating. That used to take a lot of time! Don’t miss it but I miss the look of it.

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  5. I’m with you on the teeth brushing, though I’ve gotten better about that over the years. And I certainly agree about waiting on doctors (mostly in the examining room). I’m grateful I don’t spend any time on the hair anymore — the product usage ended as soon as I retired. I think now my main beef is probably grocery store checkout waits; for some reason they always seem endless for me. – Marty

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  6. My favorite time waster, would be voice mail. Verizon, up to my recent upgrade took forever to hear each message. It sounds like it is being read by someone on tranquilizers. The voice is clear, but so slow. I find myself squirming in my chair, as if I could rush them up.

    Welcome to your Voice mail. (pause)
    You have 4 new voice messages. (pause)
    First message, sent Thursday, at 10:25 pm
    From, 123-456-7890
    Duration, 25 seconds.

    At least it’s only the first message, after that you can shut them up by pressing a button for the next message.

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    • All phone messages are annoying. People often are not clear or maybe they are on a wonky cell that you can’t hear clearly. I often end up playing it a few times for one piece of information like a number in the return call number. The other is the menu trees. They always say “listen to the options because they’ve changed and they never do.”

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  7. These are all very relatable (and good for a laugh because they are true. Good comedy is always true to life). Don’t even get me started on hair fussing. I’ve tried many different styles in hopes they’ll offer me wash and go. No luck so far. Traffic and doctor appointments, for sure. Germy waiting rooms, blech. I haven’t offered a home to a cat again for the very reason of litter boxes. I hate exercise so much I stopped doing it. Yes, I’ve gained weight since I stopped, but I use my chronic pain as an excuse. As I write this about litter boxes and exercise, I see how lazy I’ve become. 😛 😦

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  9. I loathe self-generated waits. Other Person in House (OPH) says, “I’ll be ready to go as soon as I finish this message.”

    I perform a filler task and search for OPH. He has fallen asleep in a different room from the computer. Excuse? “I was waiting for you.”

    I want to pick up a bundle of sharp retorts and break them over his head. That would be called breaking news.

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  10. Biggest time waster ~> boring conversations!

    I would rather be stuck in traffic going nowhere (with a good song on the radio) than stuck in a conversation going nowhere (with no way to leave). 😛

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  11. I should live on a breezy tropical island, too. We are in our summer weather pattern… HOT and still room for more HOT, humid with afternoon thunderstorms and showers. At least our glorified pond is full again! I love your struggling to hit 60 kinda weather but not all the rain. I hope you get a break on the rain.

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    • I’d really like some heat too. Tomorrow is warmer but Sunday will be in the 50s. Seriously, it’s May! Your summer pattern is the reason my husband won’t move down there although it’s similar to our winter pattern here excepting there is no snow to shovel.

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      • Kate, I know you have heard this line before but the hot and humid here is no worse than the hot and humid in Missouri except in Missouri after the 4th of July the highs are from 98 to 105 for weeks. Our hottest day last summer was 93… and then it rained. There are so many beautiful days here, no snow, no freezing temps, and from mid October to mid May you slide/fold the lanai doors all the way back and that alone makes me happy! Take it from me who obsessed over the heat and humidity when thinking about moving here… it’s doable. I won’t talk about healthcare, lovebugs, hurricane season, and snowbirds at the food store or on the roads… Ha!

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          • The heavy influx is the problem… you have to find a Dr. that is open for new patients. Our PC Doc is very good and she has referred us to good specialists. I just have concerns if there is an emergency situation and a hospital stay but I had those concerns in Missouri. We have a great dentist and eye doc. In a little over two years we will have a new hospital here instead of having to travel to Sarasota. Maybe I am not being fair about the healthcare… I’m thinking as I type this.. 🙂
            Oklahoma and Missouri… tornado alley!

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  12. Your list pretty much covers time wasters for me with an extra emphasis on exercising. It’s hot and humid here and walking outside is a nope until September so I am on one of the treadmills in the exercise room. I don’t know how to use anything else in there so I will have to get educated by a friendly oldster. At least it is cool, nobody is ever there, and I can walk listening to Glen Campbell! Oh, and worry, all kinds of worry… huge time waster. I am so much better at not worrying since we moved but I still do it… it’s just that there is less to worry about.

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    • Hot and humid? We are struggling to hit 60 today and rain through the end of next week. Weather whining. Another time waster! I should live on a breezy tropical island where the temperature is constant and pleasant.

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  14. Folding clean clothes. Putting away said clean clothes. I think that’s the biggest time-waster I know of. I mean, we’re going to be wearing them soon enough, so why bother with the pretense of storing them all tidy-like in drawers? I’m sure there’s a reason, just not one that doesn’t make me snarl.

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  15. Now that I’m retired, I thought I’d be done with useless committee meetings. I have one scheduled this morning. The silver lining, I suppose, is the social component, but still.

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  16. Good ones Kate! I would add robo calls and email spam!! I don’t answer the calls any more, but they keep leaving messages threatening doom if I don’t call back. What a waste of time. It can also take me 15 minutes to unsubscribe from mailing lists every day before I even get to WP.

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  17. Yes, no, no, yes, yes. And then, after you’ve been in a germy waiting room, they take you back, take your weight, your BP, maybe your temp, and you sit that long again in the exam room! The kicker? When the doc comes in and asks, “So what seems to be the problem?” I want to say, isn’t that your job to figure out?????

    For the record, it takes much longer with dentures than with teeth. You have to brush them, both the teeth and the part where the adhesive goes (to remove any left-behind adhesive). dry them, apply adhesive, get them into the right position inside your mouth, and then bite down for several minutes to apply pressure so the adhesive seals. Sometimes the grass is greener over your own septic tank! LOL

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    • Yikes! I used to wear contact lenses. The problem was that all the care and cleaning happened at night when I took them out. I was always tired but I faithfully washed them.

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  18. maybe a big compensation is waiting for us for the time we wasted in waiting rooms of doctors … I always think the time there and the gazillion of germs make me sicker than I was before I came in… but maybe that is the trick? so the doc has always lots of clients…

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    • I’m germaphobic so I’m a crazy at a doc’s office. I don’t want to sit next to someone who may be ill. I don’t want to touch magazines they may have touched. I don’t like shaking doc’s hand when he comes in (when did that stupid gesture happen? I doesn’t make me like him more.) When I get out I wash my hands really well!

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  21. Ha ha – funny post. OK, I’ll air a few of my grievances here. #1 – I hate waiting at the grocery store, so I usually use the U-scan as they have more lines and less waiting. I also only use the U-scan as I can pack the bags the way I want, with triple bags and for easy unpacking at home, otherwise I waste time sorting through stuff to deal with now i.e. fridge/freezer versus stuff to put away later. I often go grocery shopping in the morning before I start work, so don’t have much time to waste when I get home. #2 – I hate to call somewhere and have a call tree a mile long. Sometimes there are so many options, I forget the options at the beginning of each menu/sub-menu and have to go back and listen again and sometimes there is no option to press “O” and get a warm body. I hate that! Then they want you to stay on the line so you can be called back for a survey to stroke their ego. No. #3 – One more, when an entity you deal with sends a survey by e-mail and says “would you mind completing this short survey – it will only take you 3 minutes?” Then, 54 questions later, I am still dealing with the survey and if for the electric company I imagine they have my number and will pull the plug if I don’t finish, or likewise with Comcast – a punishment by them as in internet issues, for not finishing. Also, if you do a long survey like that and miss a few questions or sub-questions and you get it marked in red, like you are an idiot for having missing something in this NOT 3-minute survey. Grrr.

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    • I hate phone trees (or menus) too. Many times the option I want isn’t there. Often, but not always, you can hit “0” during the message and go directly to a live person (in a faraway country). As for surveys, I rarely do them except for some products. Most companies use a third party vendor to do the survey so they don’t know who participated. I never worry about getting a plug pulled. They want your money.

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      • I’ll try “O” if I get really exasperated, but I have on occasion, written down the numbers combo of what to push if it is somewhere I have to call all the time. I never thought of the surveys not being monitored in-house. Next time I won’t feel badly when I click the “x” after being told to “keep this window open for when you’re ready to take the survey”.

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    • Your doctor surgery waits make me crazy just reading about them. The wait is insane. I won’t wait more than 40 minutes unless I’m given a good reason or on death’s bed. I know you don’t have a choice but yikes!

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      • I don’t go unless I have to. The latest thing is more locums have been taken on……………….. to cope with the holiday season………………… and the queue starts at 7.30. It’s worse than queueing for the latest Avengers movie!

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              • 5 to 15 syns a day so big time, and I’m glad I don’t like them! I do like belgian buns though and they have 19 and a half each, doughnuts are 10, and I had a thing about cinnamon and raisin bagels and they rock the scales at 11! Pizza are in the high 40s, but that is each rather than per slice, which is still high at around 10 depending on topping.
                My first day, I totalled 5 and a half as I went all out for a good start, yesterday was 14, but I had breaded fish and that was 8 and a half, and today so far I have only had 8, 5 of which was the tinned pineapple that went in my sweet ginger sauce. I reckon I’ll get so fed up looking everything up, I’d rather not bother eating it in the first place. Good strategy!!!

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  24. Well I had a really nice cohesive comment, but it just disappeared. So maybe WP…
    Right up there with litter boxes ( the puppy pads have helped, thanks), is laundry – it never seems to go aways…would probably help if it stopped raining and there weren’t so many wet dog towels and things that can’t wash together (I know, bad planning)
    And traffic…so many new people, so much construction, and so many drivers doing everything but driving in their cars. So glad I don’t have to do the daily commute any more. Biggest time waster of all!

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    • I’ve heard about the traffic in Los Angeles and the commutes and I just roll my eyes. For the last 20 years of my life my commute was less than 10 minutes (and I complained if I got a red light). Not a patient person. Need more work on my rock star singing skills.

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    • I won’t finish a book if I don’t like it. Sometimes I’m on the fence until almost at the end. Then I’m either pleasantly surprised or really annoyed I read the whole thing.

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  27. Time spent worrying about things that never came to pass!
    I’m better at this now, but it used to be a problem for me. And I have to laugh now at all the time wasted on worrying about things that didn’t happen, and how none of that even helped when I was gobsmacked by things I didn’t see coming.

    Deb

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    • Since retiring I rarely do that anymore. I try to go at odd hours to avoid people but don’t get me started on the Starbucks line. The past few weeks has been really bad. I never thought of coffee as seasonal but it must be.

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