It’s raining this morning.

That means that I’ll get to give my new thrift store Goretex a workout today…see if the reason someone donated it is that it leaks…and not just because it’s purple.

I watched a show about ginseng poachers last night.

We have guys who poach ‘sang around here, too.

I didn’t realize how profitable it could be to steal ginseng.  They were paying these guys on the show around 550 dollars per pound for the stuff they were bringing in.

You could get rich digging in the woods.

I watched about half an hour of the show and realized that I better get to sleep…it was getting late…I better sleep.

Learning about guys digging up ginseng wasn’t worth being that tired in the morning.

We have a credit card that gives an annual statement.  It breaks down when and where we’ve spent all our money.  It categorizes it.  I think it even has some pretty expressive graphics and maybe even some flow charts.

It’s pretty impressive to see where the money went.

When it’s gone, it feels like I must have dropped it off into a black hole somewhere…but when I see the charts, I can know that the bulk of it went for gas…or food….or….

I don’t really remember what the charts say.

What if we had a year-end rundown of all the ways we spent our time?

That would be pretty crazy.

I don’t think I’d want to see a chart that included things like “watched half hour of show about ginseng poaching”.

I don’t want to know that watching a show like that might be one of the more constructive ways I used my time.

I think it would probably bother me if someone was paying attention to the ways I use my time…I know I don’t like to…it would bug me if someone handed me a chart at the end of the year.

It is something to think about, though.

( I’d like a “flow” chart, though.  If I could see all the times that I was in a state of “flow”, I’d like that. I’d like to beat my numbers the next year…remain in a constant state of “flow”.  I’d like that.)

I don’t have any idea of the big financial picture…well, that’s not completely true…I do keep a running log in my head, but it’s mostly stuff like, “Man, we’re spending some money on gas this year” or “when did bananas get so expensive?”…I don’t get the whole picture until I see a pie-chart.

I surely don’t have any idea of how I spend my time until I look back and think (or see) where it all went.

It’s like those naps where you think, “I’ll just lay down for a minute” and wake up groggy a couple of hours later.

All these little moments that I give up…sitting in front of the television, “actively” watching a show about dudes with decent beards sneaking for the ‘sang…I don’t get any of that time back.

I can’t say, “Nahhhhhhhh…not. No.  I want a ‘buy-back’….that was a waste. That wasn’t a good deal…that show stunk.  I would like a do-over…give me back that little chunk of life energy.”

” I feel RIPPPPPPPPPPEDOFFFFFFFFFFFFFF”.

It never works like that.

The minutes I give away in unnoticeable little chunks are gone down that black hole in the ground, with no hope of a chance of getting them back.

They’re gone without a hope of ever seeing a pie-chart warning sign.

And I will do it again.  I will sit and watch HoneyBooBoo for the first time, and say, “This is that show that everybody talks about.”

Maybe the secret to a fulfilled life is figuring out how to do something vital on the peripheries of all the time-wasting?

Maybe the secret is to figure out how to stop wasting the minutes we’re given in the first place.

Did you know, though, that you can make a lot of money digging up the roots?

There’s gold in them thar hills.