I am fascinated with trying to be very accurate with time. I want to ring the doorbell as exactly the time I said I would arrive. The trouble is that it is difficult to know when that exact moment actually is. My watch says one thing but the clock in my car says another. The living room clock in his house doesn't agree with either of them. If I want to be super accurate, what can I do?
I remember reading in psychophysics that astronomers trying to be very precise had to reckon with the fact that seeing an event in the heavens and reading the time that event occured meant having a little time lapse between observation and noting the time of the happening. Whenever I try to deal with the exact time, I run into discrepancies.
There are some times of the day that I want to get right for myself. I don't want to consume more coffee. I don't want to fall into the practice of drinking more and more of it to be energized. I give myself a cup of coffee as soon after noon as I want it. That means from 11 on, I am watching the clock. That is when time slows way down. I look at the clock and see that it is 11:19. I wait a good long time and it becomes 11:22. So slow! I make myself wait to check the time for at least five minutes. I look at the clock: 11:24.
This process of time slowing to a crawl happens whenever I am eager for a certain time to occur. I don't dread getting up in the morning but I keep reading that a regular rising time and a regular bedtime are valuable for good sleeping. I am a big fan of good sleep. I don't want to get up and be active before 6 AM. But waiting for 6 AM does not involve time passing very slowly.
