gaining an hour

Time is like a mafia loan shark.

You may borrow an hour in the Fall, but come Spring, the piper must be paid.

I shot this photograph in the Melaque jardin in late September. Just after Independence Day. That is why the gazebo is gussied up in its fiesta finery. But what caught my eye was how the light from the setting sun was highlighting the sacred while the secular was slipping into shadows.

My initial thought was to share a specific sight most winter visitors never get to see in this particular combination -- primarily because Independence Day is celebrated when most northerners are watching the tree leaves put on their own show in their home countries.

But I never used it. And, even though today’s essay is on a completely different topic, the photograph retains its unless-you-are-here-you-will-not-experience-it attitude.

The parts of Mexico that have fallen to the beguiling song of Daylight Saving Time (there are large chunks that have not) will revert to Standard Time tomorrow morning at 2 AM. Most clocks these days re-set themselves. For those that don’t, you will need to move your clock back one hour.

If you live in Canada or The United States and are now panicking about the time change, you can calm down. You will not revert to Standard Time until next Sunday -- 1 November. That means that for one week, your two countries and Mexico will be on separate times. In the Spring, it will be for two weeks.

And, if you are living in a European country, you will change your clocks the same day Mexico does. Further adding to the twice-annual carnival.

This is usually the point where I mount my Sunkist crate and rant about the absurdity of the whole time-changing system. But I am not going to do that. The world is filled with enough irrational raving about almost anything imaginable. I do not need to add to the manure pile.

And why should I? I am living the life of a retiree in Mexico. With the exception of getting to church on time, I have nowhere to go that requires me to be there at any given time. Nowhere. Time is about as relevant to me as getting sucked into a debate whether consumer labels in Vietnam should be in Urdu.

There is one practical problem, though, that arises during the period The States and Mexico are on different time standards. I rely on the Saturday Alaska Airlines flight out of Manzanillo to whisk me here and there. When Los Angeles and Manzanillo are on their Daylight-Standard mix, Alaska keeps its flights on Los Angeles time. That means that the usual departure and arrival times in Manzanillo will be off one hour than usual.

Because of that anomaly, I always double-check my ticket for the departure time. The only time I didn’t, when I arrived at the airport, the Alaska team was closing up the check-in desk and the passengers were starting to board the flight. It was an interesting experience.

So, there you have it. Those of us who are here will pretend that we are living on Daylight Saving Time starting tomorrow.

For the rest of you, be patient until you can join us in place. If not time.