Where does the time go?

So Kate called me down to the basement, telling me I "needed to look at something." I sincerely hoped it had nothing to do with potty training the twins.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, it didn't.

"That's mold," Kate said, pointing to a large swath of white on the carpet.

Apparently water had run behind the wall in the basement and soaked a good portion of our carpet, and we had not noticed this until we saw the mold growing. We've had several savage storms in this unusually swampy summer, and apparently during one of them, the rain was hard enough to run sideways and leak into our window well.

Now I can race down a mountain when lightning is trying to fry my ass and lead a group down a snowfield in a storm, but I do not handle things like a soaked carpet very well. Meaning, really, not well at all. Meaning, I cursed under my breath a lot, whined and stomped about. This is how I process a crisis like this one. All I can think about is how much work it's going to take and how so much of my free time is already whittled away.

I know, as a guy, I should be relishing a chance to get my tools out rather than mourning time spent watching "Battlestar Galactica" and playing limit online poker (a new passion, there's a post there soon). But that's me. 

So most likely this weekend, meaning Saturday, after a possible 12-mile run, I'll be digging around our window well, digging crap out of our window well and cauking a gap between the window well and our house that apparently screwed us in the first place.

My point in all this is people asked me how I got stuff done when I was climbing all those mountains every weekend. And somehow, I got it all done. I think when you don't plan your weekends with something, life will plan it out for you. If I had a race Saturday, I'd still get all this done, but I'd also have something to hang my hat on for the weekend. 

So if you're wondering where all your time goes, and you can't get anything like a goal accomplished, plan it out and schedule it for a weekend. Yes, you have the time. You really do. 

If you don't, you might find it seeping down and well and soaking a carpet.