Monday, June 14, 2010

5 min... really?

There are a lot of things that can be completed in 5 min.
Sweep a floor
Read a picture book to a preschooler
Clean a toilet
Phone the doctor to make an appointment
Put in a load of laundry
Make a good cup of coffee
Write a thank you note
Write a cheque
Listen to phone messages
Decide what to make for dinner
Make a phone call to a friend
Take out the trash
Answer an email
Read a short magazine article
Make a bed
Water a plant
Dust a shelf
Catch up on a favorite blog
Put on hand cream
Checking Facebook status' (or update) wait, who are we fooling, no one can go on facebook for just 5 min.

However one does not expect to wait 5 min at one of these......



Last night we found out that you can indeed wait at an intersection for a light to change for 5 min. Yup, we timed it (that is the sort of fun we have in our house on a Sunday evening!)
This is an intersection close to our house, a very common route for us to drive, me more so during the day, Royd in the evening. During the day it changes quite regularly however, Royd has noticed is quite slow on the change, especially later on in the evening. So last night at 11:40 pm, when we arrived at the intersection, he pulled out his watch and timed it. ... one min, two min, which is about how long Royd thought the change took on a slow night. Three min, at 4 min I remembered that I had the small camera in my purse and took a picture. Not too sure why I did not take one of the clock on the dashboard, oh well. At about 4.5 min a bus pulled in behind us. We thought about jumping out of the van and asking the bus driver if he does this route often and if he has noticed that this particular light is extremely slow in changing at this hour. At the moment we were discussing this option, the light in the opposite direction turned yellow... 5 min. We got the green arrow and go. Now we are wondering, if the bus had not pulled up how long we really would have been waiting. My guess is tops 20 min, that is how often the buses run!
Oh, I could walk home from that intersection in just over 5 min!