Thursday 25 March 2021

Describing Distance

 I was reading somebody's blog, or maybe someone's comment, the other day and that person was describing where they lived. They said they were a certain number of km from a well-known place. It took me a moment to realize that we never describe distance that way. We always describe it in terms of driving time, not actual kilometres. 

Husband sells car parts for particular kinds of cars and he gets people asking where he is. He will tell them how many hours we are from Toronto, for example. I have always said that I like teaching eight minutes from home. To get to my siblings' houses in a city, I think of it as 2 and 3/4 hours away.

Is this a Canadian thing? We rural Canadians think nothing of driving an hour to get somewhere. Apparently Westerners think nothing of driving three hours to get somewhere! Perhaps it's just a rural thing, but not limited to people from any particular country. How do you describe distance?


On a different note, it felt very spring-like last evening as we had thunder and lightning and plenty of rain. Everything needed a good washing down. I had an othodontist appointment, in the middle of the day! I'm on my last twenty weeks of my invisaligns. It feels like it has been forever having these things on my teeth, but there is quite a difference in how straight they are now. Yesterday, the orthodontist filed my front teeth! I was nervous about it, but it didn't hurt at all, however the smell of metal on hot tooth was a bit disconcerting! 

I've been raking the yard and gathering up many wheelbarrow loads of spruce branches and cones, and some plant materials from perennial beds. Then I burned it in the burn barrel in batches. I have much to do with the flower beds, as I didn't clean them up as carefully as I would have liked in the fall. How are you coming with your spring yard work?

40 comments:

  1. As a prairie girl, I describe distance in amount of time as well! As in: Edmonton is three and a half hours from Calgary!

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  2. I almost always describe driving distance in 'time' as well. I'm not great remembering distance in 'miles'. Maybe it's a female thing? Or not.

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  3. Here in the UK in spite of km being the recognised way of describing distance we tend to still call it miles - we would either describe the distance in miles - or more likely in how long it takes to get there - as in 'he lives about an hour's drive away.

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  4. I always use time to describe a distance. It makes more sense to me. It takes into account different speed limits you might encounter, highway driving versus back roads, etc. I've been putting off the spring flower bed clean-ups since I read an article on a gardening site about being careful not to disturb beneficial insects and bees that might be still wintering in the leaves and sticks. I guess I'll wait until I see a few bugs flying around.

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  5. I use both, depends what day of the week it is! Seriously, more often that not I will describe something in terms of time rather than distance.

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  6. Us rural folks also consider anyone within a five kilometer radius our neighbour.

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  7. We use kilometres though I still lapse into miles, from my childhood. We live 10-15 minutes from town, but depends who's driving 😁

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  8. Spring is here!
    We are beginning the leaf and stick clean up here, but the weather is calling for snow next week! Oh well. It is what it is. Have a cozy afternoon.

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  9. I describe distance in time. 6 hours to Ottawa, 1 hour to Toronto.. I don’t even know the distance in kilometres.

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  10. Funny, I was just writing om my blog about garden cleanup. I didn't do so well in the fall either for some reason, so there's a lot to do.

    As far as distance, I think of it in terms of both miles and time, but time is usually first. It's 20 minutes to town, used to be an hour to work, and it's 5 hours to my oldest son's house. 12 miles to town, 52 miles to work, and I'm not sure how many miles to my son's but around 200 I think.

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  11. Australians seem to think nothing of driving hours for a single event. We drove 7 hours to attend my cousin's high school graduation! New Zealanders measure distance in miles and kilometres (depends on age - I do both, or either). It might have something to do with the size of country you are navigating around in.

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    1. Yes Australia is vast...roads are very varied in rural areas from dirt, one lane sealed, 2 lanes sealed and modern highways so time is usually used as kilometres x speed could be anything.

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  12. Well, spring yard work just took a step backwards as we got a couple of inches of snow over night. The sun is out brightly this morning and the snow is melting even though the thermometer reads just a couple of degrees below freezing. Puddles are returned where they had previously dried up so no yard work for a while now.

    Perhaps when you live in close proximity to things it's different but I think I'm the same as you are when describing distances. As in "we're 2-1/2 hours" from the nearest city. When my folks used to come up here from Illinois to visit, my dad would comment that you had to drive a long way to get to anything!

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  13. Now that I think about it, I do tend to think of some distances in reference to time, example, my daughter lives an hour and a half from me. But I do know that it is 140 km. door to door as well. I'm more likely to use time in shorter distances, like work was about 15 minutes away in the morning and about 30 minutes coming home...darn traffic.

    No spring yard work being done here as we're expecting snow tonight and it's not all gone yet. I'm hoping to get out there this weekend and clear the deck of the pine cones and needles from the winter as we're forecast to have lovely weather then.

    Take care, stay well!

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  14. For us around here where I live in rural east of England it is always miles first and then, depending who you are talking to and the circumstances, a time distance may be added. As the distances in miles get further one is more likely to add, or just say, the time involved. For instance I am just over an hour from Stansted, one of the three major London airports, and I would always describe this in terms of time if asked rather than the mileage. Conversely for very short distances one might say time, like "it is only 5 minutes away in the car". Play it by ear is the name of the game and weigh up who you are talking to but itis never kilometres.

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  15. Here in Texas I use time... 20 minutes to my son's house, 5 hours to my daughter's, etc.
    As for spring yard work, we're waiting to see what has remained alive after the Arctic weather. DH went out and cleared up fallen branches, etc. but only time will tell with some plants.

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  16. We use time to destination rather than miles. Often, we will say: In heavy traffic 1 1/2 hours and with little traffic 45 minutes to get to Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts. I've scheduled maintenance for my John Deere lawn tractor for 4/19, had two bonfires to get rid of brush, and removed all the snow plowing stakes outlining my driveway.

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  17. I always describe distance in time. Does that mean I am a closet Canadian? I also cannot remember street names for the life of me, so my directions are vague to say the least - drive fifteen minutes until you come to a large oak tree on the left that's been hit by lightning and turn right...

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  18. We use miles out here in the Southwest. Everyone then converts it to how long it will take. If it's going to be a run through West Texas, then the speed limit is 80 or 85 and you can shave some time off. Things are so far apart here. When I lived in the South and East, things were very close together. Oh, that "hot tooth" remark made my teeth hurt! Dentists must have very steady nerves to do all that.

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  19. I stopped today and pulled the weeds from my flower pots. A good start, I thought.

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  20. Yep, us Westerners will travel great distances to get somewhere. When I moved here from Toronto I was very surprised that people would travel 3 hours for an evening out. That was 6 hours of driving!!!

    God bless.

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  21. I think that it depends on how big things are .. here in the US or Canada or Australia. And whether one is traveling on an interstate or not. It takes about fours hours to drive across Missouri on the "highway" or interstate and I plan my trips on the time it takes to get from A to B not the mileage.

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  22. When someone asks me how far away somewhere is I say it in road miles. As the crow flies is only any use to aeroplanes. I start off with miles then estimate time.

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  23. Time. That first Montréal -Toronto trip took more than 7 hours. The final leg of the trip to K-W only happened the following day we were so tired. Little did we know how often that trip would occur. Over the years the original seven hour trip has been reduced to under six. The cottage rental is 1.5 hours from home. It’s 25 minutes to get to our son’s home. Yup, everything by time.

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  24. I chuckled at your marking distance ... I used that method a lot when we were doing the trip to Toronto for Mr Man's eye surgeries & injections. The distance was not great, but the time it took was a huge chunk of the day. I am sure you are feeling less rushed with your garden clean up since it doesn't have to be done just on the weekends now. :) ... Mary-Lou =^[..]^=

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  25. Definitely I use time rather than distance. For instance 2 of my sons are 15 mins away, ( St. Albans and Caddington )though in opposite directions, and the 3rd is an hour and a quarter ( Oxford).

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  26. I think the consensus is in: we (Canadians, Australians, Americans, Brits, Greeks) use time to describe distance for the most part. Some of us have started spring clean up in our yards, others are still dealing with snow! (sorry, Mama Pea!). Thanks for all the comments!

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  27. Time makes so much more sense. If you are in A and you want to get to B it makes far more senses to know it is 20 mins away that x km or miles away. Depending upon the roads x could be anything from 20 miles to much less...also is X as the crow flies.

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  28. I usually just say how many miles away something is or how much time it takes to get there. My yard needs quite a bit of clean up too. You have a wonderful day, hugs, Edna B.

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  29. Wow! California is big it’s been nothing for me to drive all my life because of where I lived for instants to get to a dog club dinner and spend two hours of the dinner but three hours each way driving. I don’t know if I’ve noticed so much in them saying miles to as opposed to time as much as people seem to feel if they have to drive more than 20 minutes away from home they are at the end of the earth and the earth is flat.

    I may be crazy but then again maybe that’s not such a bad place to be anymore?

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  30. Never thought about this before, but realized that we always describe distance in time at this farm. Funny isn’t it? Great post!

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  31. In Jersey we generally use miles locally, otherwise we specify I.E. "One hour without traffic." No traffic hardly ever happens

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    1. I laughed at the "without traffic". Apart from getting into or out of Toronto (which usually happens once, maybe twice a year at the most), we never encounter traffic. Sometimes we get stuck behind a snow plow or a school bus!

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  32. We describe things in terms of time too. It just makes more sense! I've picked up sticks in the yard once but I know I'll have to do it again. Tis the season!

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  33. I tend to use miles as a distance descriptor. The time it takes to cover a distance kinda depends on who is driving and what the weather is like. I normally make the trip from Rochester to Syracuse in 75 minutes but one fine winter day it took me 3 hours to out and another 3 to come back (dropped a kiddo off at college during a blizzard - no choice). Trip was still the same 90 miles, but the elapsed time was radically different.

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    1. I think we all describe blizzard driving in terms of time, usually how much MORE time it took to get somewhere.

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    2. Yes, as in double or triple usually!!

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  34. I try to use metric but this doesn't work when driving, all is in miles here.

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