Saving Time

The clocks changed back to standard time. Spring forward; fall back. In the spring it takes a few days to stop feeling tired over one small hour of sleep gone. In the fall – well, I’ve been up since way before dawn.

When we lived in a rural society, having daylight hours may have made sense, but really, no matter what the clock says there are still only so many hours of daylight and so many hours of darkness on any given day. Does it really matter if sunrise is at 6:17 or 7:17?

In an industrial society, what’s the deal? You get home from work and there are five hours of daylight instead of four. I guess that’s nice. What it means to an old coot like me is that the kids on the street are playing in the cul-de-sac until nearly ten at night because there was still some light. The droning of the motorized vehicles goes on and on and on.

Now that the time has changed, what? What is the purpose, the reasoning, for changing all the clocks? It is much more difficult to change the clocks in the fall, perhaps that is why you get the extra hour – to change all the clocks. In the bad old days clock could be pushed forward or backward. Always with a warning that moving time backwards could damage the works. Digital clocks only go forward. So one has to move the clocks either 11 or 23 blips forward, depending on the AM/PM thing. And when you overshoot, you get to go another whole round.

Every year I have to study the owner’s manual to figure out how to change the clock in the car. No two cars have ever had the clocks change in the same way. Even if they were by the same manufacturer and relatively close in model year. Ever. That is very annoying.

I’m sure there is a good reason for this. I just wish I knew what it was.

Ten Things I Could Have Written About

1. My recent vacation.
2. My closets and why they look that way.
3. Organization or obsession, you decide.
4. Writing a book, the hardest part is NOT the writing.
5. Expectations – meeting them or ignoring them.
6. What fictional character would you most like to meet?
7. What is it about fictional characters that make them more appealing than “real” characters?
8. How has commercialism debased holidays.
9. Old age happens, but at what age?
10. “I’ve always loved you best.” Messages to my children.

How’s the Weather?

We talk about the weather frequently. It’s hot or cold, windy or calm. The skies are blue or clouds drift by a fluffy white or a chilling gray. Every day we have some weather.

Some people depend on weather forecasts, believing that science can conquer all and meteorology works. I’ve done so myself. For a recent vacation I calmly and confidently looked at weather.com and found my destination. I then checked the ten-day forecast. I packed accordingly. I nearly froze my butt off while visiting another state.

The day that was to be partly cloudy turned out to be mostly rainy. The day with a slight chance of rain was partly cloudy. The sunny day was in fact sunny, but a good fifteen degrees cooler than advertised.

These small irritants are nothing compared to what Mother Nature can really pull off. Recently there was a blizzard up north. Lake-effect snow dropped two feet of “chance of rain” on Buffalo. Of course, it didn’t start as snow, so the rain iced up on wires and was covered with heavy, wet snow. The combined weight dropped wires and Buffalo was without power.

I’ve lived through a tornado, a storm that was not a tornado but a fallen tree smashed the car and another tree crushed the air conditioner, a couple earthquakes of low magnitude, and a few hurricanes. I’ve never lived through a volcano or a typhoon. However, while researching storms, I found that hundreds of thousands of people have died directly from storms and hundreds of thousands more have died from the resulting messes after the storms.

The raw power unleashed in a volcanic eruption minimizes any and all attempts to harness power that mere men have achieved. One tsunami can wipe out entire towns and destroy small islands. Earthquakes can level cities.

Lightning strikes the earth somewhere each and every day. But there is nothing more captivating that a good thunderstorm. Watching the light show is fantastic. Stormchasers follow the clouds and photograph or video the funnel clouds. The immense power, the unbridled and unrestrained supremacy of Mother Nature in incontrovertible.

On clear nights, when the stars are like cut glass on the velvet sky, Mother Nature shows a different side. When the moon is full and suspended only inches above the horizon it looks so beautiful, peaceful, tranquil – like one could reach out and touch. Sunrise and sunset with pearlescent clouds reflecting pinks and oranges, glowing bronze and gold, remind one of silk flowing.

The storms remind us of limitless power. Soft breezes on a summer day remind us of limitless gentleness. Mother Nature has it all.

The Trauma of Things

Being a responsible citizen of the United States, I am a consumer. There are times when this is good, as when I am boosting the economy with my purchasing power. Then there is today.

I own a car. Most adults in the US own a vehicle of some sort or another and what I own is a car. A 2001 car, a car that has given me no problems. Until today.

On Friday, while coming home from exercising, I heard a stone hit the car. I looked around and saw nothing untoward. Everything seemed to be blissfully intact. I have had stones ping my car with impunity on several occasions over the years.

Historic flashback: I was visiting my niece in Arizona, land of intense heat. The temperature was in the 110s during the time I was visiting. It was hot. We were driving along and her windshield cracked. A small pop was heard and then there was a small crack in her windshield. She called the insurance company while we were still on the road. They came to her house the next day and repaired her windshield.

Today, I was in the car again for the first time since Friday’s excursion to the gym. I was going to the gym again and I noticed an odd line in my windshield. It was quite a long line on the passenger side of the car, right in line with looking for oncoming traffic if one wanted to turn left.

So I got home and called my husband, which probably wasn’t what I was really supposed to do. He told me which glass replacement company he had used for his company car, which was what I really wanted to know when I called.

So I called the insurance company, and they were very nice. They recommended the same glass company as my husband did. They even said that they had an agreement with them that allowed for direct billing. So I called the glass people and talked with a helpful person.

Since my niece and my husband had both had little chips in their glass repaired, I asked about repair rather than replacement. I thought that the rule of thumb was going to put my glass problem into a different category. It did. My crack is over five inches from end to end and it curves, making the overall length even longer.

They will come next Monday, the first day that worked for me and was open for them. They will replace my windshield while the car is inside my garage. I have zero deductible, the bill will go directly to my insurance company.

It is terrible when your stuff doesn’t stay pure. It is wonderful when so many people were so nice and did their jobs so well that it isn’t really going to harm me over much to have had this small crisis. I like when things work.

Service v. Self-absorption

How many good works should you do? Whose needs come first? Is it selfish to take care of your own needs first and foremost and then with the leftover energy, take care of … someone else, the world, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free?

Is it selfish to meet your own needs? Who else with breathe for us, consume proper nutrition for us, clothe us? Is it a responsible and non-selfish act to take care of one’s needs without relying on others to do so?

If each of us were responsible, and if each of us took care of our needs, how much help would be required from others? If we are put on this earth to serve others, what the others here for?

Helping others after one’s needs are met doesn’t necessarily mean one is selfish. If you aren’t taking care of your self, your soul, your person, you own needs – you aren’t worth a hill of beans and don’t have enough in reserve to give to anyone else.

Boarding a plane means many things. One of the things it means is that you have to listen to the safety drill. What sort of idiot doesn’t know how to fasten a seat belt? Why do they demonstrate that? Then the breathing masks “fall” from an imaginary ceiling and you are shown how to put it over your mouth and nose. The point? They always say, “If you are traveling with young children, put your own mask on first and then help the child.” Take care of your own basic need first, because without that, you are useless.

The problem lies in defining “needs.” Many of the things we think of as needs are really wants. We need air conditioning. Except we don’t. There was no such thing 100 years ago and people had been living without it for eons. We want air conditioning. Heat, on the other hand is necessary. Fires for heat and cooking have been around for eons.

We need clothing. We do not, however, need closets full of clothes and myriad pairs of shoes. The want should not be confused with the need.

Many of our wants have gotten translated into needs. That doesn’t negate the fact that we have real needs that must be met. It is a service to the world at large if we take care of our basic needs by ourselves? Caring for our own person and the minor children we have brought into the world is a service to all mankind. When I take care of my own needs, I do not expect others to take care of those needs. However, that isn’t what is usually referred to as a life of service.

When do I cross the line and become selfish? Where is the line that marks self-sufficiency and self-reliance rather than self-absorption? If we are to be responsible and accountable for our actions, shouldn’t some of those actions revolve around the care of ourselves at our own expense of time and energy as well as funds? Surely, it can’t be selfish to take care of one’s self.

Who Is the Boss of Me?

I am blissfully unemployed. I do not punch a time clock. I am not a salaried employee. I also receive no paycheck. As always, advantages played against disadvantages.

All humans need a purpose. All adult humans, at least, need a purpose. Without a goal, without something to aim for, life becomes patternless and washed of all color. This is a problem that is unforeseen by those approaching retirement. But it exists. So goals must be set up so there is some means of achieving success. Perhaps the goal is to shoot in the low 80s in golf or to do an entire hour of water aerobics “suspended.”

I have set up a different goal. I am writing. I am writing a book. I am writing a book with 366 discrete entries. One for each day, including February 29. Three hundred and sixty-six dates. I have almost three hundred written. It is interesting. I am learning things and I love trivia. It is not extremely difficult work because I enjoy it.

Usually. But … sometimes I am not so tuned into writing. Sometimes I would rather read. Sometimes I would even rather clean the house. That is really not tuned into writing. I have other responsibilities besides this one goal. I need to complete the activities that are necessary to my continued lifestyle.

But I must also write. That is the way to tell that one is writer. The person writes. So I set a daily goal. I will write so many pieces on this date. And then … I play a computer game. Not even a terribly fun computer game. A game I’ve already won, but it fills the time. Time I should be writing. But who says that I should be writing?

What are my goals? Am I looking to finish this inside the month? Is that a reasonable goal? Should I push myself to write when I don’t feel at all like writing? Does my writing quality diminish when I see it as a chore rather as a creative outlet that gives me joy? Does it matter if I am joyful?

My hope is to sell my book, but I’m not sure that can or will ever happen. Does that mean I am wasting my time? Regardless of whether or not it ever is published, I’m learning all sorts of things. I enjoy the process. When I’m not forcing myself to write, at least.

Since I am my own boss, who is cheated when I stop working and play a game, read, watch television, or just goof off? Will I fire myself if I am a bad girl? What keeps me focused? Should I continue to push or let myself off the hook? My solution to date has been to set up an absolute minimum of work required of myself every day and then set a second higher goal that would be nice if I got it done. I have been able to meet my minimum, but is that cheating myself? Am I not requiring enough of myself?

I need a job description. I should write that.

I’m Spinning

I have never been able to spin in circles. I get sick when I spin in a circle. I will puke if I spin in circles.

Scratch that.

I used to not be able to spin in circles. I used to get sick if I spun in a circle. I would puke if I did so. Not any more.

I have been a firm believer in massage therapy for years now. Ten years ago I suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome. I could no longer lift my coffee cup with one hand and not spill it. My hands ached all the time. They burned. They woke me up at night. I worked in surgery and knew what the surgical intervention was. I knew the recovery. I opted to have a try at massage for a cure. In two sessions, my hands were no longer burning. I could hold my coffee cup. I have no scars.

I take a water aerobics class. I go three times a week. Twice a week is the same instructor. She runs a great class. She pushes us to work hard. She watches to make sure that we are doing the exercises correctly both for body mechanics and for a better workout. My stamina has increased, my power has improved, and my balance is better. Part of her exercise routine involves spinning in half- or quarter-circles. I tried. I got nauseous. I stopped that part.

After class one day she mentioned that she could fix my problem through massage. My previous massage therapist had problems with his calendar and kept double booking appointments and I was looking for a new person anyway. I was intrigued. Not overly optimistic. But intrigued. I figured what the heck, it couldn’t hurt.

Even after the first treatment, I was spinning. Not like a top, but enough to do the exercises without getting sick. I couldn’t believe it. I was spinning. Without puking. But I was still a little dizzy, a little off balance.

Today I had my third massage. My head feels less woozy. I can spin and turn. Moving my head rapidly from side to side doesn’t make me have any vertigo. I am amazed. I am cured after decades, and more decades of being unable to do this.

I am a firm believer in massage therapy.