<joke> Use Acme::ProgressBar -- a simple progress bar for the patient: "Acme::ProgressBar provides a simple solution designed to provide accurate countdowns. No progress bar object needs to be created, and all the calculation of progress through total time required is handled by the module itself." </joke>

Seriously, though, I hope someone can help you out. And if not, running  progress { sleep 5; } always cheers me up.