Tick - Tock

As my lids cracked open, my eyes skittered side-ways trying to read the numbers on the clock; struggling without my glasses, but I could barely make out that it read 8:25am. I automatically began to do that thing in my head that I do with every time change, which is to mentally calculate what time it REALLY should be.

So of course in my mind, it was only 7:25, because I had been robbed of an hour with all that spring-forward mess just a few hours before – and it was certainly NOT time to get up yet. So I rolled back over on my left side, IGNORING the clock, closed my eyes once more, and escaped back into dreamland.

The next time I would wake the clock would read 9:45 – much more acceptable for a weekend morning, or so I thought. I climbed out of bed and automatically reached for my glasses and my cell phone, opened my phone to see what had already happened in the world after my own shutdown at midnight, and lo and behold, the time on my cell phone read 10:45!

MY ALARM CLOCK HAD NOT AUTOMATICALLY CHANGED! So all morning as I lay there continuing to wallow in the satisfaction that by golly, nobody was stealing that hour from me, and that I REALLY had a whole “extra” hour to lay there – well – I certainly did not.

SEE! See what problems all this time-swapping around causes! Because now not only am I up, but I’m flinging around, trying to get woke-up, stumbling to the bathroom to throw some water on my face and brush my teeth – because half of my day is now gone and I had so much planned!

I expect this whole next week will much of the same, except of course, my clocks will be properly set with the correct time. But I will still be mentally calculating that stolen hour back into my whole day, especially when the alarm clock actually goes off in the morning.

And I’ll be thinking about it again at night when I’m waiting for the blessed sun to go down, so it appears acceptable to crawl back into my PJ’s, because after all, I’ll be tired and worn out from the extra daylight AND that dang stolen hour that I’ll still be griping about.

I don’t know what happened to me, I really don’t. I used to LIVE for this time of year, the extra daylight, and the extra activity-time outdoors. Now it seems I just look for ways to ignore it and act like it’s not happening.

But in my children, I can see my old self, my younger self. They both talk about how much they love the time change and all it affords them. One likes to take long hikes after work, the other likes to grab a game of golf here and there, and extra light ensures they won’t be trekking around in the dark.

Just another time I wish I could wind the hands of the life-clock back to the days of youth and endless energy.


copyright 2016 Michelle Mount Mims
Also previously published @ The Havana Herald