The difference is it sounds like Vonnegut was quite content to go for a stroll and chat up the sales clerk.
This is in stark contrast with 'I wish I spent more time with person X'.
When you live a simpler life, you have simpler pleasures.
When you live a high-brow life, all of a sudden you grasp at experiences because you're not sure when the next one is going to come around the corner.
Hence missing people, or feeling like you will never get to do X again.
When you enjoy the smell of 100 flowers, the absence of a couple doesn't inspire your mind into a frenzy of 'optimizing away the bs' because you know, when you're a multi-millionaire who doesn't have to work another day in his life, is it really spending time on bs that's the problem?
Maybe it's the bs ideas in the mind and in this essay :)
I love seeing the blue sky and clouds and I love just walking outside even if a bike ride or bus ride would be faster. I also want to not be late for work, and have enough time to finish my errands. I want to have comfort and pay off my student loans and see Europe before I turn 35 (had to move the goal posts, unfortunately). It comes down to balancing things.
Also, chatting with a sales clerk, really, experiencing life is not a "simple pleasure" for some people, me included. If I had all the "important things" but couldn't see a white cloud for the rest of my life, I would consider that a failed life. In the end, we all have what we call "important" and what we call "bullshit", and it does vary from person to person.
I'm not noobermin, but for me it's not really the cost of the trip, it's the loss of the income I would have generated during the trip. I could take vacation, but I don't wouldn't want to rush through the trip. Ideally it would stretch across a few months.
This is in stark contrast with 'I wish I spent more time with person X'.
When you live a simpler life, you have simpler pleasures.
When you live a high-brow life, all of a sudden you grasp at experiences because you're not sure when the next one is going to come around the corner.
Hence missing people, or feeling like you will never get to do X again.
When you enjoy the smell of 100 flowers, the absence of a couple doesn't inspire your mind into a frenzy of 'optimizing away the bs' because you know, when you're a multi-millionaire who doesn't have to work another day in his life, is it really spending time on bs that's the problem?
Maybe it's the bs ideas in the mind and in this essay :)