What Time Is It?

I'm not going to go so far as to say I hate the first Sunday in November. After all, the NYC Marathon is being run and broadcasted with way too many political ads this year, along with the usual come back from medical ailment stories. The Hospital for Special Surgery is getting a lot of free advertising.

This is a tough year for political ads. It's the perfect storm of midterm elections and the presidential race. The midterm elections are giving us ads for candidates that aren't even in our district. Win or lose, I will be happy when whoever is paying for us not to vote for "Radical Sue Altman" goes away. I'm not even in her state.

What I find unlikeable about this day is having to set all the clocks back an hour so that we'll be on the same page as the rest of the country, and most parts of the world. I never counted the number of devices that need this adjustment until today. It is a lot.

Sure there are the smart devices that adjust themselves. The computer, the three cable boxes and even the stove. One smart device is not so smart, my wife's nightstand clock. It's got the old factory setting date for when we used to go through this rigamarole, the last weekend in October. But things change. Therefore, twice a year she doesn't know the correct time when she gets up. Surprise!

We have an outstanding 30! clocks and phones that need adjusting every time they keep Daylight Savings time in effect. Therefore, twice a year there is a lot to do. The three cable boxes are smart, as is the stove. But smart ends there

At the outset of our nearly 50 years of marriage my wife and I started to collect antique clocks. Grandfather, regulator, box clocks, cottage clock, ship's clock, bee hive clock (figure eight clock) All but one is in working order and all keep fairly accurate times.

When these clocks need to be set back the pendulum is stopped and we wait for an hour to pass. This beats plowing through the time by advancing 11 hours and going through all the attendant bonging routines. Going forward is easy because all you have to do is stop the pendulum, move the hands an hour forward and restart the pendulum. Easy.

A room by room march through is done twice a year. There are two thermostats which are the most important. The clock for the front irrigation usually doesn't need adjusting because by now the water's been turned off and the lines blown out. But not this year.

With the drought, irrigation has stayed on. But rather than fight with the outdoor box I've chosen to ignore the time reset and will just wait for them to come and shut off the water and blow the lines out. It will be soon enough. 

Every year we hear stories about end of going through all this. After all, Arizona and Hawaii—entire states—do not bother with Daylight Savings Time. 

We also hear stories about doing away with the penny, since it costs more to make a penny than it is worth.

At 75 I don't think I'm going to live long enough to see either of these two proposals come into effect. Daylight time is here to stay, as is the penny.

After all, if we did away with the penny, Ben Franklin's "a penny saved is a penny earned." would be meaningless.

Ben? Ben who?

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