Hello friends,

I have been away from the vineyard roots blog for some time now. As many things/excuses in life, “life is too busy.” Ive heard that nonsense a lot in my life and online. Everyone is too busy and life is too complicated to get anything done. I disagree, as a short analysis of my day to day routine reveals this to be false.

(Remember this is a quick, short enlightenment of my daily routine – its not very scientific.)

5:45 AM wake up, shower for 17 minutes (20 is too long, 15 too short), then come back upstairs to change (yes, its sucks tremendously not having a bathroom on the same level as bedrooms).

6:05, downstairs to relieve the pup, make lunch, make breakfast, eat breakfast (spend 10 mins on that while reading on phone), brush teeth, shave, comb hair.

6:55, go back out with pup for a poop, play with pup for 10-15 mins outside in yard. This sounds like fun, and it is since I love my pupper but remember this is done every single work day in any weather condition. The only time we don’t play is when its pouring rain.

7:15-7:20, leave for work. 20 minute commute, sometimes 30 with all the morons in society.

7:45 all the way to 4:30, work. Yes my work time is 8 hours 45 minutes. That includes a 10 minute after lunch walk and a 30 minute lunch. So I work 5 minutes free everyday for the company.

4:30 PM to 5:00, or even till 5:10, commute home. Yep only 6 miles via road, but hey there is at least 20 stop lights and countless more morons, sorry humans.

5:00 – 10:00, this is my free time. Just because its free doesn’t mean it really is. I have to cook dinner with wifey, take out pup for a play or walk, cut grass at least once per week, do some of my garden stuff, other yard work, clean up house that never ever is fully neat, go on computer, do laundry, go food shopping, eat dinner, watch TV, read a book. And also other activities which will not be mentioned here, but those are always allowed to take my free time!

10:00 to next morning – bedtime.

As you can see, work and sleep take up a majority of my daily time. Logically, I would assume the same is true for you! Haha who would have thought?

I am blessed to have an average commute (35 minutes at most) which is still above the average American’s 22 minutes (I do not know how that in any way on God’s green earth this is possible – maybe all the part timers? Que est in tarnacion?). I know some folks have it good while others, myself included in the past, have it bad with long commutes.

That leaves the final 5ish hours to do what we want. To not be busy, to be free of the shackles of life. This is false AGAIN, since we need to LIVE and SURVIVE. That includes getting food and cooking it. The wife and I try to minimize our fast food and restaurant consumption, 1 because it saves a crap load of money eating at home and 2 our waist lines have leveled off. It also makes my three to four trips to the food store hurt a little less when I see the very -not-filled-cart and the bill of $100 per trip!

Back to time management and busyness, let’s say there are three solid hours of free time left. This is assuming a single person (folk [sub parenthesis: I know folk can be construed as plural as well as singular – take a grammatical break and bear/bare with me!]) or married couple (folks), as this scenario would not work if you have a family or someone to take care of. I can hear future kids complaining about not being considered after reading this long lost post. You have three hours, you can do chores or watch TV. I would say the overwhelming number of older Americans watch TV while the younger demographic chooses to split time between TV and internet. Further analysis (from reading online articles and not citing sources since I have no time- kind of contradictory to this post) reveals that most of the younger folks spend time simultaneously watching TV and the internet. This can only be accomplished by using a phone/smartphone or as my Grandfather likes to call “a TV” (that’s a story for another time).

As for busyness, yes, Americans are busy. We work too much, we commute too much. After a hard day at the office, we just want to come home and relax. We eat out because its fast and easy. We watch TV because it draws us in with its tantalizing programs. We are more and more becoming absorbed in our smartphones. My wife is constantly, every waking second of the day, playing “match three” games or “build a farm” games on her phone. Is this an addiction? Who knows but it sure looks like one to me. I feel like we need to stop being to darn busy! We need to chill out remember why we are here on this earth. We need to stop wasting our own precious free time drawn to screens and spend it with family, friends, or even alone doing something great.

I find myself, especially seeing how the last few months have had a void in posting to the blog, frustrated at my life and how fake busy I have been. I have been consciously trying since 2016 to live a simpler life, but getting married then trying to search for a home to live in adds a whole lot of complication to day to day living. Maybe it’s the millennial in me being a complainer right now, but I would like to think not. I am really not that busy, I just find myself being lazy and deciding to sit and watch TV along with my wife.

I am not that person, I am a creator! I want to do something with my life. I want to fix up my broken down car, I want to save a ton of my income and I want to pay off mine and my wife’s student loans. Furthermore, which is the whole reason for this blog, I want to grow grapes and create wine. So, I am asking you the reader, along with myself, to start up and get going. No more excuses for “I am too busy” because I am not, and neither are you. Take action in your life, and avoid the “busy trap”. Let the rest of the world run races with rats. You arn’t a rat!

Regards,

Victor