Time on a Merry-Go-Round

Posted by: William W. (Woody) Williams

It's hard not to take daylight saving time personally. The semi-annual dread and abhorrence of "springing" and "falling" alike turns into weeks of confusion, lack of sleep, and an overall sense of doom with each change.

We are one of those lucky people with an acute and accurate sense of time. Our friends are constantly amazed by this -- one used to call frequently simply to ask the time. Since cellphones and computers largely took over this function, we've lost touch with him. Please call and check in -- we haven't spoken in over a decade now.

This time-ability is not something learned or practiced, it is natural. Not something taught in schools or through books or over the internet... just in the genes and mind somewhere. It's very accurate -- inside 15 minutes easily and very often inside 5 minutes.

That's why the old friend used to call... almost as good as the Naval Observatory. Never really understood why they didn't just get a watch but they always were something of a cheapskate and that could explain it.

So twice a year, every year we experience a complete dislocation of the time sense. It's scary... depressing... painful... and takes many weeks to normalize.

Nothing seems quite right. There's a sense of foreboding as if somehow the very basis of the universe itself has gone horribly wrong. A little like spending too much time on a merry-go-round.

Eventually the feeling of impending disaster fades, the time-space continuum readjusts its personal clock, and we are able to resume life again. But the whole process seems unnecessary, illogical, and generally a waste of... well; a waste of time.

And now, again, it is that time. The merry-go-round is whirling madly... it will be weeks before it stops.

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