Monday, March 15, 2010

springing forward -- eventually



I always thought I was the Mad Hatter. 


But, I'm not.  I'm the rabbit.


And I suspect I will be perpetually stuck in the role.  For two reasons.


The first is that I have adapted very well to my mañana milieu.  Removing the urgency for almost everything lets me be 12-years old again.


But the second reason is far more pernicious.


I wrote about it in prepare to fall back last October.  The odd tale of how a city in Mexico can be in the same time zone as an American or Canadian city, and show a different time on its clock.


And here we go -- again.  It is now time to spring forward.  Or it was up north, and it will be down here.  But not right now.


Early Sunday morning, those states and provinces that have been beguiled by the questionable virtues of daylight saving time, moved their clocks an hour forward.


That will not happen in Mexico for three more weeks.  Not until 4 April.


For me, this is not an academic issue.


Later this week, I am driving up to Puerto Vallarta to meet friends who are arriving on a cruise ship.  We intend to have a great day ziplining over the canyons of Jalisco.


I say "intend" because the time-keeping on cruise ships often requires an engineering degree.


Under normal circumstances, a ship leaving Los Angeles will move its ship clock forward one hour when entering the new time zone at Cabo San Lucas.  When the ship arrives in Puerto Vallarta, the captain can reset ship time (because the marina is barely in the central time zone) or leave the ship clock on mountain time (to avoid bewildering the passengers with another time change).


Some ships do not bother taking into account the daylight-standard time issue.


I told my friends I would meet them in the Walmart parking lot at 10:30 AM (local time).  You see my problem, there could easily be a two-hour variance from ship time.


I suspect my friends will be clever enough to simply check a local clock when they disembark the ship.


Otherwise, Thursday will be a day to push that mañana envelope.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

In this boomer age of travel in retirement, I can't imagine you are the only one to experience difficulties with time coordination.

I have no doubt that there is some approved method out there for allowing all these free-floating 60-somethings in straw hats and flowered shirts and shorts to hook with others, similarly dressed, in various ports and cities throughout the world.

I will be very disappointed if you don't have a new techno-gadget when you return to humble Salem for just this purpose, something you can pull out and fiddle with over lunch, explaining the entire time how it keeps you in sync with the peripatetic undead.

ANM

Barbara said...

I just go by the time on my cell phone. It adjusts automatically.

Steve Cotton said...

ANM -- I will call it a watch.

Brenda -- The problem is I have no cell phone. But my guests will. I hope the time adjusts on their US-issued instruments.