This morning I wasted a bit of my life, typically, stupidly

Today is my second son’s fifteenth birthday. He’s into fishing and my wife arranged a fishing trip. It was easy to set up — Boyton Beach from where the boat departed is only fifteen minutes away from where we live in Southern Florida.

I was going to join — my wife, my son (the birthday boy), my younger son (a ten-year-old), and my stepfather. But then I woke up in the morning and had doubts. For one thing, I didn’t sleep well last night. Woke up at two and didn’t go back to sleep till four. Already at six, we’d be getting up.

Then I felt guilty. The trip would be from 7 to 11. There is a lot of work I could get done in four hours. I always have this sense of dissatisfaction about not getting enough done on the work front, and on the personal front. By personal I don’t mean “family”. I mean various bits and pieces relating to running my large family. Paying bills, filling out paperwork, and various chores that I owe to my wife. But most importantly I thought I’d get a lot of work done. I’m currently doing two consulting projects.

So I didn’t join. I drove my folks to their departure spot and went back home.

Let me tell you how much I got done.

First, I had to take my daughter to her morning tennis. She would’ve missed her tennis if I’d gone fishing (there’d be no one to drive her) so I guess I did something useful by taking her to tennis.