Daylight Savings

Ah, the anticipated extra hour of sleep occurred this past weekend when Daylight Savings ended. Although the only people who had an extra hour of sleep or hoped to have an extra hour of sleep were those who normally have to set an alarm to wake up on Sunday morning. For those who normally wake up before they have to on weekends and therefore don't rely on alarms to wake up like me, there was no extra hour of sleep. On Saturday morning, I woke up at naturally (no alarm clock) at 5:00 am. Sunday morning when clocks were set back an hour, I woke up naturally (no alarm clock) at 4:00 am. Assuming I fell asleep at approximately the same time on Friday and Saturday evenings (which I think I did...) then I slept the same amount of time both nights. Now, Sunday morning, with Daylight Savings ended, I did have an extra hour, it was just in an awakened state :).  When I woke up Sunday morning at 4:00 am, we were more than five hours away from the early church service start time.

Speaking of church and Daylight Savings, one Sunday morning, many years ago, Donnie and I showed up at church at the wrong time due to not realizing that Daylight Savings had begun that weekend. The year was likely 1999 or 2000 because I don't remember us having kids. Not realizing that Daylight Savings had begun harkens back to a simpler time- before smart phones (and for us before cell phones. Some people had cell phones then but we didn't) where news and memes at our fingertips don't let us forget events like Daylight Savings. 

Speaking of forgetting, or not forgetting, more like stressing over DS, three years ago this weekend, I was in St. Louis, MO for a soccer tournament. St. Louis is in a different time zone than we are. It is an hour ahead of us. Alyssa had an 8:00 am soccer game on Saturday that was 7:00 am in "our time" but because we went to bed the night before at the time when we normally do (so super early St. Louis time), we didn't really feel the time change. But then Daylight Savings went into effect Saturday/ Sunday of that weekend.  Alyssa had an 8:00 am soccer game on Sunday. So we gained an hour which was good since we lost an hour due to being on Central time. I was PARANOID that somehow I would mess up the time we were supposed to be at the soccer field. Donnie assured me that my phone would adjust to DS ending just like it adjusted to being in a different time zone and we would make it to the soccer field at the right time. That weekend held too many time changes between staying in a city/ state that was in a different time zone and then having Daylight Savings end. (Admittedly, cell phones that adapt to such changes render much of the anxiety moot but I was still worried- what if the phone had an odd feature where it didn't adjust to DS or something?).

Speaking of adjusting to Daylight Savings, having grown up in a state that didn't observe DS, it was super odd to me when I moved to Ohio and started observing DS (I grew up in Indiana which did not observe DS when I last lived there (1995) but does now). I think the Hoosiers had it right in their pre DS day, um, not messing with clocks, turning them back and then forward, daylight in the summer not lasting until well past 9:00 pm. I am fairly ambivalent about it now. I actually like the early darkness in November (though without DS, it would still be getting dark at the same time as it is now since DS is "over"). Days start to get longer already again in December so it's a pretty small period of time when it gets dark truly early. I think it's a cozy time when late fades early, especially during the holidays when Christmas lights add their sparkle to natural light's early departure. 

I'm sure I blogged about the St. Louis soccer trip three years so I won't rehash it here but I couldn't resist looking back at cell phones pictures that I took and posting a couple. Look at my little Lyss and all of our travel/ soccer accouterments for a few out of state games. 

Did I travel across a time zone and lose sleep over worrying about not making it to the soccer field at the right time due to Daylight Savings to have to sit through a morning of games in the rain?? Yep. :)