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Today
has been a hyper vs. hypo day. There is going to
be a plant sale that I want to go to today and
Vern woke me up this morning very early. He
isn't going but I guess he thinks that if I am
not first in line, I won't get the two plants
that I want. I don't see a lot of people rushing
in to get a Stevia plant.
My Dad used to tell me about his
step-grandfather. He said that Grandpa Bolster
always had a very organized farm but Dad never
remembered seeing his grandfather moving fast.
He said that his tack room was always neat and
orderly. His wood pile didn't have a stick of
wood out of place but when they walked to town
together, Dad did 3 miles for every one that his
Grandpa did. He mentioned that Grandpa just
moved at his own pace and got everything done in
his own time. If he saw a leaf on the ground, he
would pick it up as he walked by, not really
stopping to do it.
I will have to say that even though I have never
met the man, I already admire him. He is one of
us, the turtle people. You have heard the story
about the turtle and the hare, some of us are
just turtle people.
My father was a hare. He was always on the go.
He belonged to a lot of organizations, had 30
employees, liked to entertain. How about a boat
ride or would you like to go waterskiing? Maybe
you would like to play shuffleboard on the board
that he just put in the front yard? He was
always doing something.
Mother, on the other hand was a turtle person.
She walked five pace behind Dad. (I don't think
she could have kept up with him if she tried.
We, Girls used to joke about Dad being Chinese
and Mom walking her 5 paces back.) I must take
after my Mother. She wasn't afraid to do things
but in her own sweet time.
Sometimes I think that "Hare" people
have an inner knowing that they have limited
time and they want to get it all done now.
Turtle people know that they can get it done but
that if it doesn't get finished today, there is
always tomorrow.
I do have to admire "Hare" people. We
recently had an electrical outlet that wasn't
working. I called an electrician to come and
find out what our problem was. He told me that
he would come in two weeks. He came and he
opened all the outlets in two rooms of our
house. Many hours later he still hadn't found
the problem. Putting everyting back together he
said that he would have his son come with him
next time so that they could get into the attic.
A lot of time went by and I never heard back
from him. Then yesterday, Vern called a
different electrician. Now if I had called
someone they would have told me that they would
be there two weeks from Friday. So you can
imagine my surprise when Vern said that the man
would be out later that day. (Is this a guy
thing?) He came and he fixed it in less than two
hours.
One of the other Hare things is to
"Run" all the time. When I have things
that I need to do, mail a letter, pick up a
book, get film: they are all on my list when I
leave home. A Hare will run to get one new drill
bit and come back. Then a few hours later run to
get some spackle or some other things making one
trip into several.
Another thing that I have found out about Hares
is that when you mention that you would like
this or that, for some reason they think you
mean now. As an example, I would like to take
this to Marretta's. The Hare thinking that you
mean within the next 10 min. He has his coat on
and car keys in hand. When in fact you really
meant within the next week. So I have learned to
be much more specific.
I admire Hares. If it weren't for Hares, a lot
of stuff that we have today wouldn't have gotten
done. My father was always creating faster and
better ways to do something. I guess if we have
to blame someone for speeding up the world, we
can always blame a Hare.
In the meantime, us, turtles will just plod
along and clean up whatever the Hare didn't have
time to do. Putting some order into the world
around us.
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