Sometime in the last 60 years, I picked up a touch of earlyitis, that pesky drive to leave a bit too early, arrive a bit too early, be all set to begin too early. Some people suffer from late-itis and there are those blessed with ontime-itis but I am not like that. Tell me we will leave at 10:40 and I will be ready at 10:35, if not 10:30.
I have seen how the unforeseen can interfere. A flat tire, a road-blocking accident, and bingo! I suddenly have too little time. I am an ex-Boy Scout and I like to be prepared. What if I turn my ankle and have to have a visit to the ER? What then?
I try to be reasonably sensible. Yes, an earthquake could destroy the town and then I would have to find a new town. But that seems too unlikely to plan for. However, I am interested in working on my American-male-DNA impatience, my gung-ho-ness and in quieting down. That project fits nicely with allowing a little extra time before my appointment. In that extra moment, I breathe deeply, I sneer at my childish impatience, I praise my steady self for habitually leaving enough time and more and then, bingo, again! It's time.
What is a little bit annoying is to leave extra time, to get there a little ahead of time, to nicely quiet myself during the wait but then to accidentally lose sight of the time and still be late entering the restaurant, calling up the front desk, phoning, or whatever. I have been told that it is rude to be late, that being late wastes busy people's time. But is it rude to arrive early, hang around the receptionist's desk, wander over to a chair, pull out a Kindle and sit there for ten minutes past the appointment time?
Don't forget that my watch and my car clock and the office clock here don't completely agree with each other on the actual time. It is even more likely that your watch and phone don't fully agree with each other, not to mention my times. So before you put me down as late, rude or silly, check your own timepieces.
