Several of you have written Local Observations about ways of measuring time that do not involve clocks. I’ve collected three of these LOs below. The posts are anonymous for now.
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At around midnight last night, I sat on a bench that overlooked the canal, and by the time I was done my hands were so cold they hurt. I’d gotten through six songs on my playlist while simply chillaxin’ by the canal. In other words, I sat by the canal for approximately 20 minutes. My mum introduced that method of measuring time to me. I don’t know where she picked it up, probably a show or podcast. That, or she’s a genius. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that, at least for me, time just drags on when I’m in the cold. Sort of like how one might imagine a zombie would walk in the winter, with slow, half-frozen shuffles.
I can’t believe I just compared time to a frostbitten zombie, but that 20 minutes felt like 40. Maybe I’m just dramatic and overtired.
Finished 12:40 am
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Sand Timer Thoughts
I watched a sand timer until it ran out and wrote down my thoughts during that time, then edited them into the observation below. I also ran it a second time with a stopwatch to see how long it actually lasted, which turned out to be just over 3 minutes.
Sand timers are interesting visually because I can see the time passing. It’s a very physical, easy-to-see way of measuring a chunk of time. I think the one I have here is a two minute timer, but I’ll have to check later. I find sand timers very soothing to watch, almost hypnotic. At first it seems to run very slowly but, the more sand runs through it, the more quickly the remaining sand seems to flow. I’m pretty sure that’s an illusion, though.
I wonder when sand timers were first invented. Did someone design them deliberately, or were they born out of an accident. Were they usually made of glass, or some other material? I know they were called hourglasses, which makes me wonder how common it was to find small timers of the sort we put in game boxes these days. Big or small, though, I suspect they were expensive. Glass cost a lot back then.
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I was planning to cut my nails and dye my hair this morning when I noticed that my nails and hair had grown so long. Then I realized that the hair and nails that grow over time are actually my own way of tracking time.
I relate to the last post very well, because back when the pandemic just started, I had long hair. I used to say often, that in a couple of months, my hair will be way longer than it is now. When those months would pass by, I'd notice my hair growth, and began using my hair as a means of measuring how much time has passed by between months during the pandemic.