Hey Mick! Time Is On My Side?
The whole concept of springing ahead and falling behind is utter nonsense. I have lived long enough to know one can never get ahead and the closer I get to my golden years, the further I fall behind. Daylight Savings Time only serves as a reminder.
I've talked to many people about Daylight Savings Time and I find I am not alone in my feelings. Yet, I awaken two Sundays a year and go through the same ritual every time. I glance at the digital on my night table and fumble with the buttons, pushing it forward. I awoke at nine o'clock, but it is really ten o'clock and in the space of a few minutes, an entire hour of my life has disappeared. Is there anyone out there that truly feels good about this?
I next tackle my wrist watch and here is where the real nightmare begins. When I first fell victim to this silly ritual, my Mickey Mouse watch had a stem which I pulled and turned, forcing the hands forward. Today, watches are so much more complex. There are at least three different buttons with nine combinations of pushing and holding and pushing and holding that one must resort to the instruction manual, if one is wise enough to have tucked it safely away with all of life's other important documents.
I should just take my friend Alan's advice and own two watches. "When other's are fussing," he says. "You simply deposit one in the sock draw and remove the other."
When the wrist watch is changed, I find myself in the kitchen where I change the clock on the wall; the clock in the phone display; the clock on my microwave; the ever important clock on the coffee machine and finally, the clock on my pager. By the time I have changed all these items, it is 11 o'clock. I've lost yet another hour of my life and I haven't even had my morning shower.
I leave the kitchen and stop in the living room to stare at the TV. When all this nonsense first began for me, a television was something one bought and watched. I liked my old TV. We had five stations to choose from and there was always something to watch. Today, I have to pay some cable company to watch my TV. I have over 200 stations to choose from and there is never anything to watch, but I turn my TV on anyway because attached to my TV is my VCR.
When I had my Mickey Mouse watch, I didn't need a VCR. Movies were a buck and a half. Popcorn was 75 cents and cokes were a quarter. Movies today are at least $7.50. The popcorn is closer to three and the coke is a buck seventy-five. I can't afford to go to the movies anymore. So, I bring the movies to me. I stick these movies into the VCR with the digital clock that must be changed twice a year. I don't like to admit this to too many people, but I have a hard enough time setting the timer to record the few things I might like to watch. When I bought my first VCR, by the time I got the clock set to the appropriate time, it was time to spring ahead all over again.
I simply don't like Daylight Savings Time. I know I am not alone. I have found that there are a growing number of people who share my disdain and I think it is time we do something about it. Come out of the closet. Write your Congressman. Stand up and be counted and maybe, just maybe, this October, (a month before the Presidential election) we can just turn the clock back a half an hour and forget the whole darn thing.
* * * Jon Simonds can be reached at: jonsimonds@mac.com.
Read his bio.
Home