Elsewhere in today’s paper Sibyl Gordy writes, “How about this time change? Just one day following it, I feel like I’ve been dropped onto a different planet. I know I will adapt, but I was hoping it would be discontinued.”
Me and you both Sybil, me and you both.
I do have to admit, though, that I slept better Sunday night than I usually do on time change weekend, and Monday morning I felt better than I usually do on the Monday following the time change. My body, like lots of folks’, just doesn’t adapt well to change — time change or any other to be honest with you.
I expect my “better, not good” night’s sleep Sunday was the result of having been on campus at Mississippi State University for Homecoming on Saturday and driving back home late night after a lopsided loss to Kentucky. Time had not officially changed yet, when we finally climbed into bed, but it was getting close although in our house the clocks were already reflecting the new hour of the day. I took care of that Saturday morning before we left.
Even the loss of a football game — more than half of them so far this year — doesn’t take away from the fun and comradery of getting together with the same friends you’ve been sitting on the same grassy hill with for well over a decade. Good food, good conversation, pitiful football, all make for a great day. And, a tiring day as well.
So, yes, we were tired when we went to bed and still tired when we woke up, me earlier than my dear wife, on Sunday morning. It was after 7:00 but prior to 8:00 a.m. new time which would have been about my same weekend getting up time of 6:00-7:00 a.m. old time. I’m pretty sure my body did not think that it reaped the benefits of that extra hour of sleep.
Then by 9:00 p.m. new time Sunday night my body said it was tired, had been tired, and was getting even more tired, and was ready and willing to go to bed. And, I suppose you can say what my body wants my body gets!
Waking up Monday to Brandon Presley and Tate Reeves commercials on the morning news, however, did not help the jet lag feeling of the annual death of Daylight Saving Time. I wish all that politicking business had ended by Sunday morning as well. It did not, but as you are reading this at least the election is over — unless that strange possibility of a run-off came to fruition — and now perhaps we can all get a good night’s sleep without visions of politicians dancing in our heads. Hopefully we can anyway, some nightmares are hard to shake!
Another little problem, going from Sunday into Monday — and it is not really a problem per se — but, it was hot Sunday afternoon and evening and we had the air-conditioner blowing fast and furiously. By the time it was time to get up Monday morning it was cool again outside and the air-conditioner was still blowing fast and furiously on the inside and my nose and toes were a tad bit cold. It is past time for summer to exit, and fall, or winter one, to come home to stay for a month or two at least.
On the subject of winter, the hard freeze last week finally wiped out most of my tomato and pepper plants — covered and with a heat lamp at that — and completely did away with anything and everything still blooming on our little hill. With the exception, that is, of one of those old fashioned pink/purple/white wild petunias that comes back every year — in a different location mind you — but is partial to a flower bed around the towering stump of an ancient cedar tree killed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It was still blooming when I walked by Sunday afternoon.
You have to walk between that old stump and the front porch to get to the water hose, and we don’t even want to get back on the subject of how much water has gone from the end of that hose to the pots on the porch, the beds in the ground, and the little garden where the tomatoes and peppers still stood, though dead, at this writing.
Dang drought and the end of Daylight Saving Time are desperately trying to join forces and get the best of me.
