How many hours in a day?

This from our columnist Judy Welles:

A sign of the times is the new food pyramid the Health and Human Services Department put out to help us eat right and stay fit. So many people tried to use the Web site on the first day that it became clogged, something like the arteries of many of us who have eaten too much or exercised too little. But who has time for exercise?

We move fast to be more efficient, more productive, and yet we never seem to have enough time. We talk on the cellphone to friends or family while we drive because we just don't have time for chatting when we get home. We e-mail instead of write letters – it's quick and easy.

We leave early in the morning and return early to beat the rush but are too tired to do much else. Everything seems to move fast while we seem to be running in place.

To keep up with the pace of school, six year olds are carrying backpacks or wheeling their books. Teenagers who have to catch such early busses are sleeping in class. Moms and dads leave before the crack of dawn, kids in tow on the way to daycare.

Today, living near a "big box" store is one advantage to having to move beyond the suburbs to find a house you can afford. You may have to live an hour or more from work, and suffer the long commute, but you are also more likely to find a store where you can get everything you need in one trip. Multishopping is like multitasking. That's efficiency.

Judy