Whose Idea Was This Anyway?

Daylight Saving Time started this morning. I have, for as long as I've been aware of this silly practice, thought it was . . . well, silly. And a big, dang nuisance.

Let me tell you what happened this morning: First of all, I woke up at 5 a.m. I considered this an indecent time to get up on a Sunday morning, and went back to sleep, only to reawaken at 6:00. So I lazed in bed, debating with myself whether to get up early or not. Then Bruce's cell-phone alarm went off at 6:30. Hmmm. This is unusual—he usually sets it for 7:30. But I thought that maybe he was turning over a new leaf, and wanting to get up earlier on Sundays. He ignored the alarm, and so did I. But by 7:00 I was really, truly, wide-awake and ready to start my day.

Standard Sunday-morning practice around here is that I get the kids up at 7:30, thinking that an hour is ample time for us all to get ready for church (after all, all the kids bathe on Saturday night, so it shouldn't take that long to get dressed, etc). When I see that they are ready enough for me to leave them (i.e: out of bed), I go have a shower and get myself ready. By 8:30 I am all ready to go, only to find that a few of my kids went back to bed, the little girls are playing games in the living room and their dress-shoes are lost, and half of the remaining kids apparently haven't ever heard of a comb. Usually, we barely make it to church by 8:55, even though the church is only a five-minute walk from home (and we drive there). 8:55 may not sound so bad, since church starts at 9:00; but I am the ward organist and I'm supposed to be there by 8:45 playing prelude music.

Well, since I was up at 7:00 this morning, I thought I'd get the kids up early so that maybe we'd get to church on time. And then I had an even better idea: I'd get myself all ready first, then get the kids up at 7:30 (as usual) so I'd have more time to supervise them (and boss them around, as necessary). So I did. I shaved my legs, showered, got dressed and fixed my hair, and was pleased to find that I had indeed accomplished that much by 7:35. Then I strolled through the house to wake up all the kids.

When I got back to my room Bruce asked me what time it was. 7:42. "Well, what time did my alarm go off?" 6:30. That had him puzzled for about 15 seconds. Then he says, "Is it Daylight Savings today?"

Oh, crap!! I am not an hour early at all—I am minutes away from being late again!

Well we did not "spring forward," but at least I got to church on time today. Bruce stayed home to get the kids ready and walk to church with them later. We survived this one.

Now that the crisis is past, I thought I'd look up just who had this brilliant idea of Daylight Saving Time. I'd heard that it was Benjamin Franklin, which took him down a few notches in my estimation. But I went to Wikipedia, the source of all true facts and enlightenment, and looked it up. It was not Benjamin Franklin (although apparently he mockingly suggested something similar to the French). My faith in Ben Franklin is restored.

No. This silly idea is attributed to another man, William Willet, who wanted more time in the evening to finish his golf game.

Well that is worthy of disrupting my sleep pattern (which is sketchy, at best) and changing the schedules of the rest of the world, forever more. But I'll get over it. After a period of adjusting, I'll get used to it. And then we'll "fall back."

But right now it is 4:00 instead of 3:00. Maybe I should think about making dinner for my family.