I could do so much … or at least get so much done … if I had more time. If I didn’t have other things to do. Also if I didn’t read so much news. Also, if I woke up earlier. This would require my falling asleep earlier, but there was work to do last … and early this morning. Also, I could sleep in, which seemed like a delightful idea when I pulled up the covers in the a.m. hours. I was OK with it when I woke up, mid-morning too. Then, I did the work that needed doing. Finished freestyling some class materials, waded through the email, tread water with the news. Had lunch, read a page or two from a book. But!
But if I had more time in a day to do all of the things I want to do, I could do half of the things I need to do and one-quarter of what I’d like.
I think about that a lot. I think about that a lot because I actually have a a bit of free time. The problem, as ever, is that I’d like more, and I need it to come in large blocks — I’m talking large chunks: 24, 72, 744 hours — rather than a little here, and a little there, later.
For instance, I wanted to get in a bike ride today before class. And because of my timing, and the above, I had enough time for an hour. That’s essentially a long loop around the neighborhood. I rode the four miles into town, and then by the park, and the sheep farms. Took a left in the next crossroads town, and then a right away from there off into the real countryside, just watching the clock tick by on my computer as I wondered, not for the first time, why that particular road vexes me so. I turned before the winery, pointing down into a creek bed, and then up two little hills, to the sod farm.
I enjoyed the misting.
We ride through irrigation setups from time-to-time around here. I always wonder what is spraying me. Hopefully it was water today. It was certainly cold.
After that, it was a right turn, and then riding at tempo for a few minutes to get to the last stretch of road. It’s the middle of the day and I’m in the middle of nowhere and the last turn is a hard right-hander. On the inside of the turn, which you don’t want, is a big chunk of abused potholes. On the outside of the turn is a big wash of sand that never disappears. And after that is a stiff little overpass. So I swung waaaaaay to the outside of the oncoming lane, changing the geometry of the whole turn, and then did the cool-guy stand up ride over the hill. There’s just one mile and change to go from there, so I slowed down, as I continued to watch the clock. Lower the heart rate, cool down quicker. I had a whole strategy: electrolytes, shower, cool down, dress up, go to campus.
None of it worked. Some days it is too warm to cool down, I guess.
Also, I’d been sweating the details about how this particular class session would go. We do a fantasy football league in the org comm in sports class, where small groups form franchises and those franchises do a bit of work together across the semester. But, also, there’s fantasy football bragging rights to be sought. Tonight is the night we were holding the draft. The first game of the NFL season was tonight, too, and I promised I’d try to get them out earlier enough for that. Plus, I learned, the ESPN fantasy platform requires an hour for the behind-the-scenes automation to come together. I don’t know why. So how to do a lot in a little time.
This is what I settled on. For half an hour the franchises would meet. They had to do some basic team stuff, find a name, build some colors, determine their target demos, get registered, and so on. Then we had to fill that hour between when the teams were registered and we could do the draft. While the class was busy thinking about the first, second, and third round draft picks, I took us on a tour of what how org comm and sports comm are correlated, how we can expect that to work out in real life, and why we’re doing this, when we could just be doing fantasy football.
We built an eight-team league. Seven of them are the class. I drafted a team, just so everyone would have an easy win. My strategy was to drive a bunch of guys named Smith, some guys from my alma mater, and then people that are goofy characters or beloved for reasons beyond the fantasy points they can collect. I told my students my plan was to build a team that couldn’t win. It took several picks for them to believe me. I don’t know why. I picked a kicker, Daniel Carlson, in the first round! I picked one of the weaker defenses in the second round.
Anyway, we worked our way through 16 rounds of picks. Some of the new franchises were very excited for their teams. We’ll see how they do soon enough. Most importantly, the timing of all of this worked out, and I got them out with a few minutes to spare.
ESPN sends you an email that evaluates your draft pick. It seems I met my objective.
I walked out of the building in the silver-gray part of the early evening. I drove home in the gloaming.
It was dark when I got there. I sorta hate that. The days are getting shorter again. You can’t help but be aware of that. And that’s what I really hate. If only there was more time.
