Back at Old Home after another week at The Ranch.
Living in two places at one time (more or less) is something that I have not really experienced for well over 30 years. I forgot how rather time stretching it can be.
One always finds one's self in two time zones: the time zone one is actually in, and the time zone that one is trying to live in. In my current case it is not too difficult: the time change is such that I can essentially go about my regular schedule and still adhere to what appears to be a regular living schedule. It is just that I go to bed rather early and wake up rather early as well.
In my case, I keep my work computer set to New Home time, as that is the schedule that runs all my meetings and due items. It can be a bit disorienting, looking at one clock as seeing one time and then stepping out a door and looking at a clock that has a different time. My body certainly does not notice, and I find myself hungry pretty much at all times of the day.
The best part, though, is the end of the work day.
Because of the difference in timing, I find myself with effectively two extra hours at the end of the work day which are "left over" from the time difference. Being that I am not at New Home, many of my distractions are not there. I have this mysterious and almost forgotten creature - forgotten perhaps since childhood, anyway, of "free time". It is as if I am running a counterfeit operation, printing time at my own discretion for my own use.
I have not yet fully been able to accommodate its use - something that happens only once a month is still a little new for me and as a creature of a schedule, it is hard to make an off-week schedule. But it is something that I have become conscious of - a benefit, although an unexpected one, of living in two places at the same time.
So, not really jet lag. More like a science fiction time travel dichotomy. Enjoy your free time!
ReplyDeleteLeigh, kind of like science fiction. That said, I was hoping for more starships and aliens. This sometimes feels more like Groundhog Day.
DeleteI literally go nowhere without a book in hand. That way if I find myself with free time, planned or unplanned, I am good to go. I have caught much heat from others for sitting in my car reading while my daughter attends some hour long function in the evening. "You live fifteen minutes away," they say. I always say yes I do but that is a half hour of driving with wear and tear on the vehicle, using up gas needlessly only to sit at home for thirty minutes doing what I am doing here now but with a bonus 30 minutes since I'm not spending it driving. Free time!
ReplyDeleteSometimes in the depths of summer, I will trade reading for walking but even then, I am usually listening to something akin to a book and trying to increase my knowledge.
Ed, we are peas in a pod. I carry a book a little less now, but that is just because I go out less at the current time. And I will happily sit in the car reading when the kids are doing activities - or did so in the past (they drive themselves pretty much now.
DeleteThere was a time long ago when as a bright eyed space cadet, I thought travel time on business was for business (because one of those achievement books said so). Turns out I do not work as well on a plane, so it remains prime reading time (of which I now get an additional 10-12 hours a month).
I struggle a bit with podcasts and walking. There are one or two I listen to, but I find something beyond 45 minutes and I lose interest. Walking time, for me, is really pondering time.
When we lived in France we were an hour ahead of the UK, which caused problems with our work if we forgot to make the time difference allowance. But having the extra hour in the evening was a benefit during the winter, which made the winter seem shorter. Here in the UK it gets dark that much earlier, so the winters are longer. It is as it is. One adjusts!
ReplyDeleteVera, I have not yet missed a meeting because of the time difference, but part of that is because I try to be more conscious of it during the week I travel (I am really trying to find a way for the company to let me keep doing this). I will say that The Ranch is more northerly than New Home, so I get even less daylight there (but more in the summer, thankfully). If this is the worst burden I have to bear to see my parents more frequently, it is a very small one.
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