Free Time - Why do we always lose it? (1/2)

Americans use all kinds of wonderful things that make life easy and save lots of time - things like cars, computers, phones, and dishwashers. In spite of this, people lack free time in their lives; they keep wishing for it. We rarely have time for a long, relaxing bath or an unhurried walk without a destination. People seem to be always busy. The question is, with all the timesaving devices we use today, where does the free time go?

Today we shop in supermarkets. We can store a week's supply of meat and vegetables in spacious refrigerators. Dependable freezers enable us to store food for months. This save a great deal of time.

Food itself has become "fast". Famous fast-food shops seem to be everywhere. Even coffee comes in an instant form. For those who want other types of meals at home, there is a large variety of foods to choose from: fresh food, prepared food, canned food, and frozen food. Microwave ovens defrost frozen food in minutes. It is no longer necessary to spend hours in the kitchen preparing meals; food companies do most of the work for us. This saves much time and works.

We even have a choice of how to serve food at home. We can use paper plates or dishes that can be cleaned in an automatic dishwasher. Either way we save a lot of time.

There are always new inventions that do things faster and easier. We can clean our teeth quickly with an electric toothbrush. We never have to touch a garage door to open or close it; an "electric eye" takes care of that. Television sets can be worked by remote control.

The timesaving tricks that modern telephones can do are really amazing. Dialing numbers has become old-fashioned; gently tapping them is much faster. Phones with a memory are now available. By tapping a preset code number, we can make a call. Phones in cars are becoming very popular, too. Being able to drive and talk saves a lot of time.
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(to be continued)