Time lapse

We all lose track of time every now and then, whether because we’re busy or because we’re having fun. When we’re “lost in the moment” doing something we enjoy, that’s a good thing. When we’re just busy, it can be startling, though not necessarily bad. But what happens when for unknown reasons time just disappears? Today I found out.

I had a periodontist appointment at Noon today, one I was especially dreading after the debacle of the check up the end of July. I wasn’t dreading it just because of cost, though that’s a thing, but, instead, that this is a never-ending story.

Still, I was looking for ways to make something more positive out of it, so I thought about making trips to a couple stores on the North Shore, and I thought that if I left the house by 9:30am or so I’d have plenty of time (I like to allow an hour and half to get to the North Shore in case traffic is extra congested because of the never-to-end (or so it seems) road construction, an accident/breakdown, etc.).

However, last night I decided I wouldn’t do that, and instead I’d just go to my appointment and then stop at a nearby grocery store before hopping on the motorway and going home. I re-calculated and thought originally that I’d leave at 10am, realised that was too early, but instead of going to 10:30 as I should have, my mind didn’t fully register any time at all. And that’s where it gets really odd.

This morning I had in my head that I should leave by 11:30am, and for some reason it never occurred to me that would only allow me 30 minutes to get to my appointment (the fastest I’ve ever made the trip is 55 minutes). So, I carried on with my morning, had my breakfast at 10:30, did an extensive teeth cleaning (as I always do before an appointment), showered, dressed—and by then it was coming up on 11:30.

I took care of a few last minute chores, and got ready to leave. I headed out the door, saw it was 11:37, and thought to my self, “that’s not too bad”, and then for no apparent reason, reality suddenly hit me. With a sort of “wait, what?!” kind of thought, I pulled the sleeve on my jacket back so I could see my watch face and saw “…11:38”, which was enough to register: I’d given myself 15 minutes to drive an hour’s travel time.

I was in shock, but immediately rang the office to cancel the appointment and to apologise profusely. After that, I took my embarrassment and disbelief and sat down to try to figure out what the hell had happened. I still have no idea.

My first thought is that maybe I just had too much going on in my head. My mother-in-law is coming on Wednesday to stay with us and I want to get a couple projects done before then, and, of course, to make the house as nearly perfect as possible. So, that’s been on my mind, as have a couple “big ticket” house-related expenses we have coming up, and, of course, the dental dramas. If all that wasn’t enough, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do to observe my birthday next year, since it’s a rather significant one. Oh, and, of course, all sorts of projects around the house I (still) need to finish.

So, I had a lot on my mind. Could that be all it was? Was it just that I had too many circuits busy to have any capacity even to plan my travel time properly?

Amid the initial shock of having so totally screwed up my timing, I thought that maybe this was memory related, or, worse, a sign of a serious memory problem. There was a brief panic as I considered that possibility.

I have no certain explanation for what happened, though I think the “circuits busy” explanation is at least as good as any other, maybe better. In the future, I know that I’ll double and triple check my travel time so there’s no repeat of this mortifying experience. Just another thing to add to my list of things to do.