Easier the second time

At about 7:40 AM on Friday morning I was started to think that my alarm clock was a reader of this blog, or at least my recent post about looking forward to the recent time change.  I was beginning to think this because, for no apparent reason, in the wee hours of the morning on Friday the alarm clock 'sprung forward' all on its own, and without any indication that it was about to do this.

Of course this meant that I ended up waking up an hour earlier than I had planned.  And because the alarm clock's time had changed I didn't immediately notice the change.  As far as I knew the tiredness I was feeling was nothing more than normal tiredness that is a result of staying up a little too late.

It wasn't until I was part way through breakfast that I looked at the microwave clock and started to sense that something was off.  Instead of saying 8:something AM, the microwave was indicating that it was still 7:something AM.  As the microwave has been at least a few minutes off for the past few months I assumed that it was wrong or partially wrong.

I was eventually able to figure things out by checking the clock on the coffee maker. By finding that this clock, which was not changed to reflect the Autumnal time change, agreed with the alarm clock I was able to finally confirm that the alarm clock was the problem.

The upshot of all of this is that it seemed a little easier to get up this morning at the new time.  Maybe that's because I slept in or maybe that's because my alarm clock prepped me for the change a few days early.

For the first time in my life

For the past few days I have been becoming increasingly excited about the upcoming timeshift that will see us have an extra hour of late-day sunlight.

While I am still not looking forward to losing an hour of my night, I am certain that within a day or two I will be so excited by the extra hour of sunlight that all of my recent sleep-loss hardships will soon be forgotten.

Why didn't I appreciate the good things in life, like extra sunlight or scenic look-offs, when I was younger?

SAD Milestone

Today marks the first day of 2011 that the sunset in Halifax, Nova Scotia will occur at 17:00h or later. As it turns out, the scheduled sunset time for today, at least according to Environment Canada, is precisely 17:00h. Before I know it, I will again be able to take evening strolls in full daylight.