How Long is an Hour?

I know...it's 60 minutes!  But why is it that some hours fly and others creep?  Our perception of time passing is skewed by the events that fill that time.  When you love what you are doing, the time seems to fly.  When you are driving down I-81 through Virginia... the time will inevitably creep ever so slowly.  Well, at least that has been my experience!

In no particular order here are some of the fastest and slowest passing hours this summer.

Endless Hours

We spend many hours with our family and friends at the shore and somehow time just slips away.  I like to say, "it gets late early up here".  I blame it on being in the Atlantic time zone.  The sun sets so late in the summer that before you know it.....it's late.  Those hours go by very quickly!

Any hour spent at our neighbor's house or our house watching the sunset, eating dinner or just visiting  will fly.
Sometimes we wish time would just stand still!

The Hour or Hours I Wished Would Never End

Ever since I bought our croquet set many, many years ago I have wanted to have a family croquet game on the lawn at the farmhouse.  I had visions of a very Gatsbyesque event.  We had thrown around the idea of dressing in all white and having a lovely game sometime during the summer.  We even tried to schedule a game but to no avail.  Then one afternoon it just happened!  I love it when things "just happen".  Jehnna did a beautiful job of documenting that evening here.  It was a very civilized and classy evening, complete with our own butler.  I really have no idea how long we were out there but the time flew by and before we knew it the sun had set and it was time to move on.

One of the rules was you had to continue holding your drink during the entire game.
Who knew croquet could be a drinking game?!.

The Hour That Lasted Forever

Our drive home never seems to go by quickly enough for me.  Most of the hours crawl by while I stare out the windshield wishing we were "there already".  I am just not one of those people who loves a long car trip.  I think too many car trips have burned me out.  However, there is one hour on our drive home that stands out as THE LONGEST HOUR EVER!

I had been warned and knew it was going to happen.  TJ had a very important conference call one of the days we were driving.  He gave full disclosure and told me when it was and that it would last about four hours.  I would have to be the driver during the call.  I was fine with all of this.  What we did not plan on was that there are very few areas on I-81 in the mountains that get good cell coverage.  No cell coverage while driving meant we had to find a city....on top of a mountain... with a good cell signal... for the conference call.  Meanwhile, Sadie the dog and I got to cool our heels and ....wait.  I was prepared to drive during the call but not just sit and wait it out.  I was fairly patient for the first three hours of the call.

Sadie and I did a lot of walking during the call.  We found a nice park and walked.  We ate lunch.  We walked more.  I went into the strip mall and shopped.  I read my email.  My patience wore thin, we were burning daylight....to quote a loved one.  I was getting tired and bored and just wanted to "get there already".  The fourth and final hour of the call was the last straw and seemed to last another four hours.

The idea for this post happened right here...the sight of.the longest hour of our drive home!

The longest hour may or may not have resulted in me pitching a spoiled brat hissy fit.  FYI having a spoiled brat hissy fit only makes an hour last a lot longer.

The Best Hour of the Week

Our pastor likes to say that the hour we spend in church is the best hour of our week and sometimes he is right.  This Sunday was surprising.  I already had more than half of this post written last Sunday before church.  Imagine my surprise when during the homily the priest shared a little levity at the end.  It played right into his point but it also made me do a double take.  He did an entire list of things that ended this lead in,

"Isn't it funny how.....

-$100 looks so large in the collection plate at church and so small at the mall?
-we all cheer when a ball game goes into extra innings or overtime but groan when the homily runs 5 minutes too long?"

I know exactly what he means!  Isn't it funny how fast an hour spent watching the sunset at the shore or playing croquet on the lawn with some of your favorite people can go so fast and how slow an hour in a parking lot in TheMiddleofNowhere, VA waiting for a conference call to end can go by so slowly?!

Hope all your hours are full, fast and endless!