Daylight Savings Time, I Miss You
When my father retired, he stuck to his workaday schedule: up at 6:30 a.m., in bed by 10:00. That seems nutz to me, but Daddy was naturally *shudder* a morning person. I am not. I got up at 6:30 a.m., five days a week, for years. Then, being a night person, I'd stay up until 11:00, 11:30, even midnight which meant I crashed on the weekend.
Even after I retired, I set my alarm and got up around 7:30 a.m., mostly because I feared that Samantha would not get off to school on time. I wanted her to graduate and put school behind us so very, very much! It made me less anxious to get up and confirm to myself that she was on schedule than to try to sleep in and fret.
Then she graduated and got a job opening a gym at 5:00 a.m., and I stopped worrying and let nature take its course. I found that my natural pattern was to turn out the light sometime between 12:30 and 2:00 a.m. and wake up around 9:00. After two or perhaps three days of this sleep pattern, I'd have a night of insomnia where I wouldn't fall asleep until 3:00 a.m...sometimes not until after 5:00. I'd grit my teeth and get up around 9:00, as usual, and resign myself to a day fighting fatigue.
This may sound irregular and perhaps, on those low sleep days, a little grim, but it worked well enough for me. Then November 5th came and went, and suddenly I wasn't getting anything done. I'd get up around 9:00, feed the cat, putz around getting my eyes open, make my breakfast, read the newspaper, shower, and get dressed by noon or a little later. Then, all of a sudden, after I'd tidied the kitchen and done my exercises, it would already be too late to start a project. I try to do one 'extra' job each day: run errands, clean a room, do laundry...something not done in front of a computer or at a desk. All of a sudden, that wasn't happening anymore. Why not?
On Saturday, as I was tidying the living room and dining room, I happened to look at the clock as the light outside dimmed: 4:25 p.m. Once again a day had gone by and I hadn't done anything extra...because there was no more Daylight Savings Time...we were back on standard time. Surprise, surprise: the hours of daylight had gptten shorter. Let's face it, this situation will only get worse and my days will get more and more compressed.
One of the casualties of the limited daylight hours has been my walking. I looked back at last week and realized I hadn't gone farther than three blocks from my house all week. I should be putting in a mile or two at least three or four days a week, if not everyday. I enjoy walking, it's beneficial exercise for a diabetic, and the only reason I'm not doing it is because I'm disorganized? That's ridiculous and it's stopping as of now.
I am going to start setting my alarm. I'm still not setting it for the middle of the night: no, I'll set it for 8:30. The difference is, when it goes off, I'll actually get out of bed. I relocated the alarm clock to the window sill, at the furthest point away from my bed in my small room. No more waking up at 8:45 a.m., then shutting my eyes for just five minutes, and sleeping until 10:00 or even, horrors! 10:30. If I'm downstairs by 9:00, I can have my usual leisurely breakfast with the newspaper, clean up the kitchen, and still get started on an extra with plenty of time to execute it before I have to turn the lights on.
So, put that in your pipe and smoke it, Daylight Savings Time! I can manage without you. Hah! FanSee
Even after I retired, I set my alarm and got up around 7:30 a.m., mostly because I feared that Samantha would not get off to school on time. I wanted her to graduate and put school behind us so very, very much! It made me less anxious to get up and confirm to myself that she was on schedule than to try to sleep in and fret.
Then she graduated and got a job opening a gym at 5:00 a.m., and I stopped worrying and let nature take its course. I found that my natural pattern was to turn out the light sometime between 12:30 and 2:00 a.m. and wake up around 9:00. After two or perhaps three days of this sleep pattern, I'd have a night of insomnia where I wouldn't fall asleep until 3:00 a.m...sometimes not until after 5:00. I'd grit my teeth and get up around 9:00, as usual, and resign myself to a day fighting fatigue.
This may sound irregular and perhaps, on those low sleep days, a little grim, but it worked well enough for me. Then November 5th came and went, and suddenly I wasn't getting anything done. I'd get up around 9:00, feed the cat, putz around getting my eyes open, make my breakfast, read the newspaper, shower, and get dressed by noon or a little later. Then, all of a sudden, after I'd tidied the kitchen and done my exercises, it would already be too late to start a project. I try to do one 'extra' job each day: run errands, clean a room, do laundry...something not done in front of a computer or at a desk. All of a sudden, that wasn't happening anymore. Why not?
On Saturday, as I was tidying the living room and dining room, I happened to look at the clock as the light outside dimmed: 4:25 p.m. Once again a day had gone by and I hadn't done anything extra...because there was no more Daylight Savings Time...we were back on standard time. Surprise, surprise: the hours of daylight had gptten shorter. Let's face it, this situation will only get worse and my days will get more and more compressed.
One of the casualties of the limited daylight hours has been my walking. I looked back at last week and realized I hadn't gone farther than three blocks from my house all week. I should be putting in a mile or two at least three or four days a week, if not everyday. I enjoy walking, it's beneficial exercise for a diabetic, and the only reason I'm not doing it is because I'm disorganized? That's ridiculous and it's stopping as of now.
I am going to start setting my alarm. I'm still not setting it for the middle of the night: no, I'll set it for 8:30. The difference is, when it goes off, I'll actually get out of bed. I relocated the alarm clock to the window sill, at the furthest point away from my bed in my small room. No more waking up at 8:45 a.m., then shutting my eyes for just five minutes, and sleeping until 10:00 or even, horrors! 10:30. If I'm downstairs by 9:00, I can have my usual leisurely breakfast with the newspaper, clean up the kitchen, and still get started on an extra with plenty of time to execute it before I have to turn the lights on.
So, put that in your pipe and smoke it, Daylight Savings Time! I can manage without you. Hah! FanSee