It’s time change weekend. Daylight savings comes to an end, and it’s dark by about noon now or something. But I feel good because I got up at 7am this morning, or did I? This is probably one of the things people consistently bitch about in the most in the cycle of a year. I know, what sense does it make to take an hour here, and put it over there? But we do, and this is one of the two weekends in a calendar year we shuffle the clock. I am just happy my kitchen clock is right again now for a few months.
These time change weekends used to be a lot more rough for me, when I was bartending. You either get an extra hour of bar time, which nobody needs, or you lose an hour of bar time, which no bartender likes enforcing. You get called some colorful names, and you basically lose an hour of income because people who are drunker can be known to tip more. Take an hour of boozing away, and they get cheap real quick. For all the things I do miss about tending bar, this weekend is not one of them.
It’s different now too, since I don’t work weekends. I can just lollygag my way through the weekend, relatively oblivious to the change until it’s all of a sudden dark and I didn’t get the yard work done. It was always kind of fun, before cell phones and devices changed automatically, to see who would get to work an hour early or an hour late, depending on the time of year. Time change weekend could always screw up even the most punctual of people. Plus the flow of people was different too. The rush would never come when you expect it, because people are screwed up for a few days. People tend to follow the sun. It’s still light out, it’s not time to eat dinner yet. I think the early darkness made for good, early dinner rushes, then people go home, and you can get home at a decent hour after shift.
For the next couple of months, it will be dark when I leave work now, at 5pm. I go in at 8am so there is usually some daylight except for those couple of days right around December 21st, when we start getting daylight back a little each day. That’s the target day, make it to that and you can survive this. I really feel for our field workers, the guys who actually make us our paychecks. They come in when it’s dark, and don’t usually get back to the shop until it is dark. Sure, they are out during daylight, but that’s not like enjoying a sunny day. As you count your blessings this month of gratitude, thank the greater beings you speak to for the people that work those kinds of jobs, that have them leaving home in the dark and getting home when it is dark. There are a lot of them, and they are working hard for all of us.
I guess the powers that be are going to end the Daylight Savings thing, one way or another. I don’t know what the best idea is, or if it is truly as disruptive as some people would have you believe. It’s a day or two to adjust for me, in my many years it never rocked my boat that badly. I can’t ever figure which way they are making the adjustment, if we go back to daylight savings in spring and stay there, or if we will keep rolling standard time. Whatever, my phone will let me know when it does or doesn’t change. I am just going to miss the Cher meme about turning back time. It all has just happened every year, and I deal with it.
Whether we are saving daylight, or wallowing in darkness, we are all given the gift of each day of our lives. Like sands through the hourglass, you know? I would like it better if we could figure out a way to defer snow for a season. But we live like we do, and we shuffle our clocks based on where we live, and we gleefully travel between time zones and adjust for a few days. So changing time two times a year never bothered me too much. Just appreciate the time you have, and if the time change is such a problem, put your phone down for an extra hour each day, and live that hour. We have 24 each day, no matter how light or dark it is. Live them.
Coco's Veiw of the World 