Sunday, March 11, 2012

Semi-Annual Night of Temporal Confusion

I woke up this morning at about 7:30  depending on which clock you looked at. Darned Clocks - Some Have Gone All Screwy but waking up at 7:30 was not bad considering that I only got to bed about midnight last night. Actually got a fairly good night's sleep too. The day started okay for me until I looked at the clock on the FIOS box. It didn't have the same time as the one on the wall. Then checked upstairs. The FIOS set top box also said it was an hour later than indicated by the wall clock in the basement. The thing is, upstairs, the wall clock agreed with the FIOS set top boxes. I figured the wall clock in the basement either stopped or slowed down because of old batteries. Then I saw the clock on the radio in the kitchen. It said it was the same time as shown by the wall clock in the basement. Man - this was getting screwy. Then it hit me, last night must have been the semi-annual night of temporal confusion. It is indeed a confusing night, at least at closing time at bars, when a typical question, at least that one night each year is: "What do you mean we had to close an hour ago officer". Yep, last night was the semi-annual night of temporal confusion alright - the one when many of us wonder 'do we set the clocks back an hour or move em ahead'. Spring ahead - Fall back - simple as that! Getting used to it all is another thing, well for some anyway.

It really does not bother me all that much. Some docs and shrinks say it is terrible for our circadian rhythm. Not for me because I am not in a hurry because of it. When I worked, if I had to get up an hour earlier, so what. I just made sure to hit the sack an hour earlier the night before. Otherwise I just went to work late. That usually worked and worked well. With the seeming additional daylight hours we get each spring, I simply feel better during each stint of daylight savings time. It should be permanent as far as I am concerned. Getting light a bit later and staying light a bit later each day is great. The only thing that sucks about DST is that it ends in the Fall.


That Fall back night is the one that makes me feel miserable even though we supposedly get an extra hour to sleep. It is the one after which you start getting up in the morning with the sun up earlier but going down earlier too. It makes for a melancholy mood is all I can say, especially for folks who like to get up late but then wind up having their days cut short by lack of light. I bet that writers like Edgar A. Poe did some of their best work in the winter.

Me, I am going to enjoy the longer days. It will probably help to perk me up nicely, well that and the warmer weather that should be here soon.


All the best,
GB