This 'n That

I read a nifty article today on the four stages of decomposition that bodies go through after death. It was highly detailed and I decided that no matter how informative it could be you might prefer not to know so that’s all I’m saying. Um, well, except that if you harness the gasses given off you could collect Freon to recharge your air conditioners. Might save you some money. Hey, maybe you could invent a gizmo to do that and become wealthy. Keep me in mind if you do so you can send my percentage for giving you the idea. If you want to read it it’s in the September issue of Scientific American.

Do you know how evil daylight savings is? Switching the time one hour disrupts circadian rhythms which could lead to sleep deprivation, causing more traffic accidents. Men are more likely to commit suicide in the first few weeks of changing their clocks and there is an increased risk of heart attacks. Mm hmm, one little hour really does matter. States have the option of participating in daylight savings or not as they see fit. I think I’ll begin a campaign in Pennsylvania to leave time alone since I’ve had a tremendous amount of trouble sleeping this summer. Here I thought it was because the angle of the earth during the summer makes the moonbeams not shine through my window and all this time it was from changing my clock. I wonder if I leave mine alone and refuse to go along with it if that’d make a difference for me personally. Hmm, perhaps it’s worth a try since I’m awfully tired these days.

So. What’s on your mind?

Get a Life!

Ever noticed that daylight savings time brings out the whininess in people? Or maybe it’s only those that I know. It’s still a week away and they’ve begun bitching about losing an hour of sleep already.

I have several suggestions which naturally they don’t want to hear. Some I can’t, won’t repeat here. Others I will. Go to bed an hour early Saturday night. Of those complaining, I can’t name one who has a set in stone bedtime. If that’s too much of a jump, start tonight. Turn in 10 minutes early every evening between now and then and you’ll work your way up to an hour. If the exact minutes you get to sleep are really all that important to you, you could sleep in Sunday. Perhaps a combination of both.

To me, this event simply doesn’t matter. My cats might let me sleep later if I go by the clock. The birds wake them at daybreak. It takes about 15 minutes for them to start being complete nuisances, pouncing on me, knocking things to the floor because they are awake and therefore must eat instantly. If it’s dark later, the birds won’t chirp and the cats won’t pest as early as they do now.

Other than that I really don’t care. Time is relative in my house, not specific. None of the clocks are set to the correct time anyway. There are some I might not even bother switching this weekend.

Change Your Clocks

Daylight savings time ends tonight. To most of the country it's probably nothing more than a nuisance. To some, if the article I read yesterday is accurate, it could mean their life. Yes, there's a study that shows that turning the clock back and getting an extra hour of sleep causes fewer heart attacks. Conversely turning your clock ahead in the spring causes more so make sure you go to bed early then. I'll try to remind you.

Back to what I was rambling about. What does daylight savings time mean to me? The actual act of switching the time, nothing. It's the being reminded to do so that is what used to be important. You see from the time I moved into my house twenty-one years ago until the time he died my dad always called me on the evening of the time change. No matter what else was going on in either of our lives we always had that conversation twice a year. Hm, you might even say it occurred like clockwork.

It's been six years but a small part of me still expects that call later tonight. I'll have to remind myself not to be disappointed when the phone doesn't ring.