Time change not reason to stress

Published 6:05 pm Friday, March 13, 2020

By JACK GODBEY

Community columnist

By now, we have hopefully all set our clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time, otherwise known as, “How do I change the clock on the microwave day.”  

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People across the land wake up groggy and more annoyed than usual because they lost an hour of sleep. I don’t have a problem with it myself. The only thing I wish is if they are going to turn the clock forward why can’t they do that on a Friday at four o’clock so we can leave work an hour earlier. I think it would be much better received if we did.

Instead, the change is supposed to happen at 2 a.m. I can tell you right off the bat that I’m not doing anything at 2 a.m. except sleeping or more likely getting up to use the restroom… again.

Most people I have spoken to are upset about the time change because it makes them lose an hour of sleep. I look at it as just being an hour closer to breakfast. What can be bad about that? 

The only thing that aggravates me about Daylight Savings Time is the work I have to do in order to change all the clocks in the house. The easiest change by far is my cell phone. It takes care of itself and changes its own time as if by magic. No stress and no fuss. If only the rest of the clocks in the house would do that, it would make this day of the year less stressful.  

I started the task of changing the clocks first thing on Sunday morning. I went to the kitchen to change the clock on the stove and soon realized that my master’s degree was useless in this task and several times during the process of trying to change the time I considered just taking a hammer and being done with it. I eventually found the right combination of buttons and I walked away with pride as if I had just done something great. 

My pride and confidence didn’t last long though because I then went into my vehicle to change the clock on my radio and was met with frustration beyond what I anticipated. I pushed every button I could find and after accidently changing all my preset stations, I finally decided that if I just wait six months the clock will eventually display the right time again and I gave up. 

Many of us are concerned about time. We all have so much to do with work and home responsibilities that sometimes there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day. This made me start to think. If you could get the hour back somehow that was lost through the time change what would you do with it? Some may use the bonus time to sleep or to work on their to do list. Some may go back and fix mistakes made or take back words said in anger. Some may go back in time to re-do something that we didn’t do correctly the first time.

Instead of trying to take back regretted actions maybe we should put more thought into not making those mistakes to begin with. Many times, we are like the stove in that our actions cause us frustration. Instead, we should strive to have our lives to be more like the time change on the cell phone and be free of aggravation. Of course if you’re that upset about losing an hour, just wait until November and you’ll get it back anyway.