Are You on Time?

I thought it would be easy to do some research, lay out some data, let you plug in, and have a wise and maybe humorous comment on this past week. Forget that. Outside of some scientist in a special room watching and making notes with an atomic clock, the rest of us in 2024 try to get to work on time and go to bed at a reasonable hour. Here are some scatterings to consider. One of my first time sayings was “Farmers work from sun up to sun down” which sometimes meant before sunrise because cows needed milking or lasted past dark because livestock needed bedding down. The earliest time measuring chunks were moon months, inaccurate yet noticeable with memorable names like a Full Worm Moon in the spring and the bright orange Harvest Moon in October. Types of clock began with sundials with the Romans even having a pocket-sized one. They moved on through water clocks with controlled drips to Galileo and a pendulum to a mechanical clock and the quartz that didn’t need winding

Men had vests with a special pocket for a round watch to pull out and check. Picture a train conductor. My mother never had a watch she wore. She just went into the bedroom to check the Big Bend on the dresser or noticed the town clock at the corner of the bank if downtown. I got a wrist watch for graduating from the eighth grade which lasted me well into my marriage. Now even preschools have some type of internet watch that tells digital time and the number of their steps in a day.

So, other than remembering FALL BACK is the direction in November, how did the end of DST affect you. If you lived in Arizona or were a member of the Navaho nation, it had no impact. You along with various countries around the world as well as the entire continent of Africa live all year with whatever sunlight is provided. Only 62 countries try to lessen their energy bills by stumbling through the predawn hours. Personally, I could handle the appearing to have an extra hour in the morning, but it takes a week for me to decide how to manage an early sleepy feeling in the evening.

In the beginning, the Bible says, there was light called day and dark called night. We are the ones who have filled both ends of the spectrum with illumination as needed and shades to block out the sun. Ecclesiastes 3 gives us one verse to say we have enough time and then lists 28 options for a start.

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens. Ecclesiastes 3:1