It’s possible that there are some people who truly like Daylight Saving Time. I’m not really one of them. It is easier for me, I suppose, because I don’t have a schedule for each day. So, I’ve eased into the difference, getting up when I wake up, going to bed when I’m tired and sleepy. David, who does need to get to work at a reasonable and reliable time, reset all the clocks, so I at least know what time it is, in the current state of TIME. (And it really is Daylight Saving Time and not Daylight Savings Time.)
Many years ago, I read a series of children’s books about the Moffat family, by author Eleanor Estes, who won several book awards. Jane thought of herself as the Middle Moffat, having older and younger siblings. In one of the chapters, she wonders about Daylight Saving Time, instituted during during World War I. She imagines that there is a big box where the daylight is being stored so that it can be taken out and utilized for longer days. (There is a charming line drawing that shows her peering into a large box with sunbeams radiating out of it.) The Middle Moffat was chosen as a Newbery Honor Book (in 1942).
It seems like a nice idea, when I’ve got a deadline, and I’m concerned about meeting it. I could walk or drive to the big box, just as the sun’s going down, and gather up some of that stored daylight. Think of how much yard work I could get done, if there was some additional daylight. Would I need to pay for more daylight? Would the box give me some additional daylight, but require me to have less daylight on some other day? Like the middle of January? When I might not really want, or need, extra daylight?
I looked up “Daylight Saving Time,” hoping to get the basic information. The article had 6,296 words in it. It contained the entire history of Daylight Saving Time in every country in the world. In detail. That’s the link, up in the first sentence, in case you’d like the very informative history of Daylight Saving Time.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, I went to the elementary school where I volunteer to work with a kid, where we read together while she eats lunch. Read a page, eat some lunch, read another page, eat some more lunch. And, we’re done a little bit after 1:00. She went back to her classroom, and I went to run a couple of errands. And then, eek! I’m attending a couple of seminars at the museum, and the first one runs from 3:00 to 4:00. And, I’d lost track of time and it was 2:45 already. I turned the car toward the museum, knowing that I’d be late. And, I was about halfway there when I realized that, Oh, yeah. Daylight Saving Time! I’d not remembered, at all, that I hadn’t changed the clock in the car. And, because I’d been in the house, with all the clocks that David had reset, I’d left the house to go to the school and not paid any attention to the clock in the car.
I went back home, had some lunch, got a jacket (it can be chilly in the Museum), and then leisurely made my way down to Baylor, in plenty of time for the first lecture. I should be better organized next Wednesday. Maybe.
The night has passed, and the day has come near. Let us therefore cast away the deeds of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
Romans 13:12 (The New Matthew Bible)
I need a while to get used to the late afternoon darkness. A week, or so, or maybe a little more. I’ll probably be completely accustomed to it by time spring arrives, and we change the time back again.