time is running out

It is morning in Mexico.

The daily 8 o'clock symphony is in full swing. The call and response of fighting cocks. The rumble of buses and whine of motorcycles taking people to their jobs. The owl-like voice of the turtledove.

This Sunday, all of that will change. The cocks, the buses, the motorcycles, the birds -- they will all carry on as usual. But the curtain call will be at 7 AM.

It is time for us to fall  back to standard time. Nature will not give a turtledove hoot. It keeps its own counsel on time. While we humans, with our penchant for quantification, try to eke out more daylight from our day, nature just keeps chugging along.

And because no one has worked out an international standard on how to apply the rules of daylight saving time, there are inevitable glitches during the clock shift. Canada and The States switch three weeks earlier in the spring and one week later in the fall than does Mexico. That leaves a four-week gap when air flights are forced to alter their apparent departure and arrival times.

Of course, there are portions of all three countries that do not play the daylight saving game. So, if you are flying from Saskatoon to Cancun or from Tucson to Hermosillo, you do not have to worry about any of this because they do not play this chronological three-card monte game.

To avoid all this switching back and forth, some politicians have proposed switching to daylight saving time for the entire year. (If that sounds as if it indulges in a bit of Carrollian logic when the obvious answer would be to stay on "standard" time, I am with you.) Eleven countries -- among them such international standard-setters as Namibia, Belarus, and Uzbekistan -- have opted for eternal daylight saving time. Russia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland tried it, but didn't like it.

I am rather agnostic on the topic. As a writer, I like all the hub-bub. What would I write about this time of year if the switching went away?

Living in Mexico may warp my view. We have plenty of daylight all year, and I can choose when I want to use it on my own without the assistance of a clock. If I had to make a choice, I would most likely opt for leaving standard time in place for the full year. I am the type of guy who has worn the same style of shoes for thirty years.

In the end, it will not make much difference to me. If those fighting cocks can live by their own time and ignore the clock, so can I.