In the situations you’ve listed each one is underscored or highlighted but a very significant event or occurrence. Absent such an event I think Time just eases on past in a long stream of waiting for the next big event to happen.
Those whose lives are regimented by schedules and deadlines and routines may notice the finer points of the intervals of waiting for something to happen, may even have their perceptions honed to the minute or hour level of awareness of the ticking away of Time.
Others whose routines are more leisurely, such as retirees and people no longer in the work force, more likely feel the days and weeks pass with similar notions of casual amusement.
Lacking the Big Event(s) in our lives, I believe all of us are conditioned to the idea that eventually something important will happen. We keep reading and watching and preparing, hoping to survive whatever it is. When we do survive the latest Big Event, it’s mostly a matter of waiting for the next one.
Time is infinitely precious. When my allotted time is gone, there is no more. I may choose to spend my time with mundane activities like talking to a friend or playing with the dog or reading a book, but that is my choice. When telemarketers interrupt my activities, or when I spend half an hour plodding through an automated answering service to report a problem, or when I stand in line for 40 minutes at Walmart “customer service” because it’s inadequately staffed, these people have stolen something from me that cannot be replaced.
As for the value of 30 seconds, ask a skydiver who is in free fall after jumping out of an airplane. Thirty seconds can be a long, glorious time.
