Money's tight, nothin's free. Won't somebody come and rescue me"?

from "Crossfire" by Stevie Ray Vaughn.

"I just don't have the time"...I have noticed myself saying that less and less lately. I have actually written two post on the subject of being busy, and I am, but not so busy that I can't take the time to reflect on the good things or relax with family and friends. I don't need to be so busy all of the time, I just end up rushing some things because I don't pay enough attention to others. That is going to stop in my life.

Jeff Foxworthy said in a recent interview that we have "filled up every minute with something these days". Where we used to use time driving in a car to think or listen to a favorite piece of music, we now conduct business or family affairs or just mindlessly chat on a cell phone from the minute we back out of the driveway till the minute we pull back in. What happened to calling someone when we got where we were going? I know people who call their SPOUSES on the way home from work and talk to them all the way home. Hey honey....I'll see you when you get here, OK? Let's save something to talk about over dinner! How about using driving time to actually drive?! The new hands free cell phone law wasn't passed as a fashion statement! No, talking and driving aren't always mutually beneficial, and what about texting?..Are you kidding me? Then there are the people using laptops in cars. MY GOD! Your home and office both have computers, isn't that enough?

From dusk till dawn, it seems that so many people just never turn technology as well as their business off for a few minutes. I see SUV's full of kids with a soccer Mom or Dad at the wheel on a cell phone that they never put down as they go through a palm pilot to see what they have to do next. People in line at stores and banks rudely yammering away as a clerk tries in vain to get a transaction completed with people(namely ME)in line behind them as they lose track of what is going on in the midst of a conversation about who knows what. It drives me crazy. If I am doing something and my cell rings, I will either tell them to call me back or, as in most cases, just not answer until I am finished with whatever I am doing.

Every single minute seems to be filled with tasks or calls with no breaks, and now an entire generation is being raised on fast food, microwave dinners and with cell phones, i-pods and laptops plugged into some orifice at all times. Why not? Mom and Dad do it. Mom and Dad are so busy with both working twelve hours a day then running kids to myriad functions that there is simply no time to actually cook dinner. I may be guilty of the girls and I eating on TV trays, but we are eating a homecooked meal unless I am just not in the mood to cook, which doesnt happen often and I am a single parent! If this generation aren't eating homecooked meals, how will they know how to cook for the next generation?

Another thing that society seems to have forgotten how to do is pace themselves, slow down and calm down. Everyone seems to be in such a hurry to get where they are going as they are plugged in to technology. I regularly see, in the course of a day driving around town, a dozen or more red light runners. I see people dashing around railroad crossing gates with a phone in their ear and I see them speeding through school zones and two lights later, I am right next to them again. Hey, wherever you are going will still be there in five minutes, which is probably more time than you will save driving like that across town.

I see women putting on make-up, guys reading the sports section, and people eating breakfasts, all while driving. Come on people. I mean really, get up a half an hour earlier and stop trying to multitask at the wheel!

Advertising and TV shows don't help much either. With the possible exception of Corona commercials, everyone is always busy doing something while plugging the product or service. They are too busy with whatever they are doing to look the camera, and by extension, me, in the eye when they are talking. That bothers me.

I remember when Law & Order first came on TV. In the show intro all the guys(the two ADA's and the two cops)slowly walked down the courthouse halls in a seemingly relaxed conversation. Today the cast would have to be running to go any faster down the same hallway. What's up with that? I get tired just watching them! It bothers me. What's the hurry? Do they need to go smoke or something or is it the last case of the day?

One of the things I love about riding the Harley is that I can't be bothered by anyone while I am riding. My cell phone is in my windshield pouch and I cant hear it ring and wouldn't get it out or pull over if I did. I don't have to go fast to get where I am going. I like to chill and look around. I like to feel the freedom I have on the bike and not have it interferred with by something that will wait till the next time I stop. I don't have to go fast because I am never really in a hurry on the bike. If I gas it I do so because I want to get some adreneline going by blasting a few curves, but it's never because I feel the need to hurry.

I have started, over the last few months, making a point to slow down and not allow others or myself to impose time constraints on my life. I get up early enough to do what I need to do at home or I go to the coffee shop and read the paper, eat and maybe write a blog in my composition book to later put here(like I did with this one). I don't need to multitask or make a slalom race of Rosedale Highway traffic. I have generally spoken with anyone I needed to while on the conference call and have no need to stick my phone in my ear like the drivers on either side of me.

I like the slower pace at which I have been living life and I hope my kids notice it and take it to heart. They see me relaxing on the couch, watching TV, playing my guitars and cooking dinner. They see me taking small trips to get away from work and they notice I am a little more mellow and don't lose my composure so quickly or for as long when I do lose it. I hope they can pass the example on to their friends now and their families later.

If one person who reads this makes some small changes in their routine to alleviate the stresses involved in always trying to "keep up", I will have written a successful piece.