The Living is Easy
If you’re not too old, you can remember when we didn’t have Daylight Saving Time. I was a freshman in high school when President Nixon ordered us to move the clocks. The only vivid memory was sitting in my first period English class and looking out the small window in the door watching the sun come up. I learned later that the original idea to change the clocks was Benjamin Franklin’s. In terms of what it means to me - it meant living was getting tough. That’s what my father said. “Going to work in the dark and getting home when it’s dark makes living tough,” dad used to say. I’m really not too sure why we do it (change the clocks); I think we just got used to it.
When I was in the Air Force I learned that not all places change their clocks. Hawaii and Arizona are the main abstainers. I guess it has to do with geography and the attitude of the populace. My friend, Bob Schmid, told me this riddle. A man in Florida calls his brother in Oregon. The clocks of both read the exact same time. How is this possible? Answer - The man making the call lives in western Florida in the panhandle (which is in the Central Time Zone so he’s only two hours different from most of Oregon (most are on Pacific Time). A small chunk of eastern Oregon is on the Mountain Time Zone so the brothers are only one hour different in time to begin with. If the Florida brother calls between 2 and 3 AM when the clocks “fall back” the two brothers will be exactly the same time for 59 minutes. At 2 am in Florida it becomes 1 AM and that is the time Oregon brother has until he turns his clock back at 2 Mountain Time.
Confusing, isn’t it? But here’s the good part - we are living in the best part of the year. Not to say that Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and football playoffs are bad, but now the living is easy! That’s what dad says when we “spring forward” and baseball arrives. To me easy living means sunshine and baseball. Robert Frost said “All’s right with the world” and I’m buying it hook, line and sinker ball!
The upside and the downside is the extra innings baseball package on Direct TV. The upside is I watch lots of baseball. The downside is that I watch lots of baseball. I only watched parts of four different games today so I managed to get a few things done. I don’t know when I’ll find time to write!
My next novel is coming along at a snail’s pace. I hope to finish it by Christmas. I’ll get a lot more writing done after the World Series ends. I’m going to try and stay close to home this year. We took eight trips last year and it was fun, but much too much. I’m letting people come to me. Selfish? Maybe, but the Olympic Peninsula is well worth the trip. I tell folks that Port Angeles isn’t the end of the world…but you can see it from there!
David, my son, is leaving for Spain soon (in the Navy) and he’ll ge to Dubai from there. Jenna and David met at grandpa’s over the weekend and I got a full report. I won’t get to see David until 2011 but Jenna is planning a trip in August when Lauren is home. Two other kids have hazy plans to visit. Part of me is sad because I miss my children and the grandkids in Colorado, but I know that modern life really spreads people out. Sometimes that depressing feeling of sitting in English class, listening to the teacher talk about Lord of the Flies, while waiting for the sun to rise dampens my outlook. But then I look outside and know it’s going to be all right after all. Because now the living is easy!