giving away time

Here we go again.

If you live in Mexico, tonight is the night most of us will set our clocks one hour forward. (Or, if you are the type of person who mourns the death of the subjunctive, you can move that hour hand forward at the official time of 2:00 AM. I will personally be doing something far more productive.) Daylight saving time is once again upon us.

I say "most of us" because two of Mexico's states (Sonora and Quintana Roo) do not participate in this annual hokey-pokey in honor of Chronos. Sonora does not play because its economic partner Arizona doesn't. That is the usual justification. I suspect they do not play because the last thing desert states need is a saving of daylight. Ranchers are practical folk.

But the rest of us are stuck with the game. Fortunately, almost everything in my house will not need my guiding touch to jump an hour ahead. My telephone, computer, exercise watch, and television will simply execute a command embedded in them long ago.

The only clock I will need to change is the one on the kitchen oven. Oh, yes, and the clock in my car. Ironically, the object I own that contains more computer chips than the rest of my devices combined is not smart enough to change its own clock.

What the computer programmers cannot do is adjust our circadian clocks -- that marvelous device in our heads that lets us know the natural cycles of time. For some of us, the world will exist in a haze for several days until we adjust to the New Reality imposed on us by Authorities Who Simply Cannot Help Themselves In Making Us Better People.

For the first time in my life, I will be springing forward twice this year. I just happened to be in The States for its switch over to daylight saving time. Canada and The States jump on the saving bandwagon three weeks before Mexico. Somewhere between Los Angeles and Manzanillo, I gained that hour back when I returned to standard time in Mexico. All good things end. I must now give it back.

In the past, I have spent too much time ranting about the silliness of this entire exercise. But that was just a lot of wasted typing. Time in Mexico means very little to me. Because I am retired, I go to bed when I feel like it. I get up when there is no more reason for being abed. I dine at my leisure. I watch movies on my own schedule.

The only regular appointment I have on my calendar is 10 AM for church each Sunday morning. And that is exactly what I will do tomorrow.

By coincidence, the time switch is on Easter Sunday morning. There is a message there somewhere, but I will let you ferret it out.

In its stead, I will simply wish you a blessed Easter.