A Joyous Perspective on Spring Forward: Does Anybody Have Time for This???

This week at the Friday Night Thought Tale Hour with the Henderson's, it's time to change the clocks, yet again. We will have more daylight in the evenings at least for a while - but mornings will be dark still - and I'm a morning person, and I like my sunny beginnings. You reset all the clocks, but your biological clock doesn't have a reset button. Why can't we just leave it in one place to avoid the yawns I'll be doling out every afternoon for a few weeks?
Instead of ranting, I'll just point out a few of the most amusing consequences of the outdated idea of a time change: Let's see, it's Spring forward...Fall back, right?

I mean, does anybody really have time for this?

Awkward o'clock

It fills our lives with little annoyances twice a year. You forgot to set the coffee maker timer forward, so the coffee brewed an hour early, stopped warming an hour early, and the coffee is cold - a thrilling discovery as you need the smell of the magical drug now more than ever.

You spend 15 minutes turning the microwave off and on, trying to figure out how to set the clock. Finally, you decide who cares, microwaves don't need clocks anyhow, only timers.

You long ago gave up trying to reset the clock in your car and are shocked to see that it has the right time - which goes to show that we don't really need to change time to be correct at least half of the time.

This one better auto change!

The clock on your computer sets itself forward, nice. But you forgot and did it again.  Now it looks like 8 o'clock, it is actually 9 o'clock and feels like 7 o'clock.

Some folks arrive for work an hour late because they forgot to spring forward. Some people arrive two hours late because they thought it is Spring back…Fall forward.   You can tell who they are because they are the grumpiest.

You can't remember whether you changed your wristwatch, so you change it again, only to realize that you can't trust your watch either. This is made worse by having multiple watches. You have to depend on your cell phone to determine the right time every time you put on a different watch for the first week.

Bro Mark's time remains unchanged

You dream of moving to Arizona or Hawaii and wonder if you would feel better by not participating in this nonsense.  Of course, it could be worse. In Indiana, part of the state participates, and part does not. Now that's something I could never have time to understand.

You decide daylight saving time is actually just a plot to confuse us by making us think we are saving energy. You are glad you don't have to save any more energy because you don't have much left to save.

If I got some of these events backward, don't be surprised.  It only goes to show that, like everyone else – I'm confused!

And now for a message from reality.

I know people who live by this clock.

On the inside of all this havoc over changing the clock, is the realization of just how tied to the clock our lives can be. We tell ourselves how vital 'time management' is to our success - and yet - if there ever was something we kid ourselves about, it's that we really control how much time we have. We ascribe to the belief to stay above the fray of disorganization. But tick tock, there's only so much time in each of our hourglasses isn't there?

So perhaps what time it is really isn't as vital as what we are investing that hour toward in our days. 

For me, daylight savings means more time in the garden, more time on the deck, chatting it up with my sugar, more time playing in a park with the grandkids. Eddy and I can go for walks after work or school sometimes...So, in that case, I'll make do with the hassle of the time change, whether I'm sitting back or leaping forward.

So tonight, we will raise a glass drinking Satsuma Orange Margaritas. Why Satsuma? Because this thought tale hour is MY time, and I'll use whatever kind of orange brings as much to my hour as possible... CHEERS FRIENDS.

Satsuma Orange Margaritas (from PBS.org)

• For the Glass Rim: 
• 1 teaspoon satsuma orange zest
• 2 teaspoons white granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt 
• For the Drink: 
• 6 fluid ounces tequila of choice
• 4 fluid ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
• 16 fluid ounces satsuma orange juice (from about 12 oranges) 
• 4 fluid ounces Cointreau or triple sec
• 
  
• To make one cocktail, add a few ice cubes to a glass. Pour in 1 1/2 fluid ounces of tequila, 1 fluid ounce of lime juice, 4 fluid ounces satsuma orange juice and 1 fluid of Cointreau or triple sec; stir to combine. Repeat with the remaining cocktails. Serve immediately.**

**Always drink responsibly.

It's 5 o'clock somewhere, right, Homer?