Watching Paint Dry

There was a segment in the Beatles Yellow Submarine movie.  It is the only segment that I remember.  It was only a minute long but it seemed so much longer.  It was watching a clock , animated in that psychedelic manner, tick off the seconds to one minute.  There were trying to illustrate the line "Sixty-four years is 33661440 minutes, and one minute is a long time.”  They were also trying to provide an enhanced experience to those watching the movie in an enhanced state of mind.

Basically, time is relative.  A minutes can fly by if one is engaged and engrossed in work or an interesting task.  I am amazed by how quickly time flies when I am surfing YouTube for new  Armenian, Greek, and Turkish music videos.   Waiting in line at a check-out can be an eternity.

When you are doing something you enjoy doing or are very interested in, time can fly by.  When you are bored waiting and would rather be doing something else, one minute seems like a long time.  It is like watching paint dry.

I first heard that phrase, watching paint dry, when my children were on the Wilton Wahoo Swim Team back in the early 1990s.  Swim meets were day long events where it is hot and humid with chlorine scented atmosphere.  Parents are there for the long haul, sitting, and waiting for the one minute out of every two hours that their kid is actually participating.  No matter what you bring to read or do, boredom is inevitable.  It is like watching paint dry.
 
To say that golf is popular in the US is an understatement.  More men my age express their passion for the game than for any other pastime.  Not only do people play it whenever they can, they watch it on TV in numbers that boggle my mind.  Guys that I know will watch it, discuss it, and marvel over it like I would do for college football.  I do not play golf much, but I do enjoy it when I do.  It is good to be out with buddies.  Plus, I get to smoke a cigar or two which is always a good thing.  One thing I will not do, however, is watch golf on TV.  It really is like watching paint dry.

Why write a little bloggy bit about watching paint dry?  There is certainly a potential for cuteness as long as I keep it short and sweet.  (I may have already exceeded that limit!)  

I am writing this because of my buddy, my pal, Ara Topouzian.  In either an email or text exchange, he got on about some of my recent blog topics.  Tongue in cheek, he said “you’ll write about anything that comes to your mind won’t you, even if it is like watching paint dry.  Hey there is a topic for you, Watching Paint Dry.  Why don’t you write about that?”

So I have.  Ara this one is for you.