Ten Minutes into Thirty

My son's school bus pick up time has changed again, this time to ten minutes earlier. I guess the bus really wasn't getting to school on time after all.
 
But this is not a blog about buses (if it were, my son, the bus expert, would be writing it for me). On the contrary, it is about the ten minutes. Yes, ten minutes. For, as I discovered today, sometimes ten minutes is really a half hour.
 
Perhaps you are now completely confused. Everyone knows that a half hour is really thirty minutes, not ten. The thing is, in the ten extra minutes I had today, between putting my son on the bus and getting to work, I did at least a half hour's worth of errands. And because I turned my ten minutes into a half hour, I arrived at work with dry socks to replace my snowy wet ones (I was shooting for non-leaking boots, but we can't have everything, can we?) and a gift for an upcoming birthday (and it's not easy to find just the right thing).
 
What form of magic did I use to turn ten minutes into thirty? Sheer determination. While the altered bus time might not be of any great significance, I was (and am on a daily basis) determined to use that ten minutes for more than just a less hurried trip to work. There's a limited amount of time in a day, and there are an infinite number of things to do. Ten minutes is basically a gift, and to squander a gift, rather than use it to its fullest...
 
Because of my sheer determination, I had time today to make sure my feet were warmer and my presents were bought. And to be at work on time to boot (no pun intended). Far more than anyone can accomplish in ten minutes. But totally doable when ten minutes turns into a half hour.