Daylight Savings Vent

The last few days I've had really bad brain fog - mostly due to a cold. The dysphasia (impairment of the power of expression by speech, writing, or signs) is bad (if you know my writing style well, you should be able to see the difference today). Calculations are impossible. And Daylight Savings, that *$(!*#&@%()#$ change of the clocks, has made it almost impossible to think clearly in any way whatsoever.

I've noticed it in the children I've worked with - their inner clocks are off, they're tired, cranky and they get hungry at the wrong time. It takes a few days for them to adjust. Our bodies, being organic in nature (duh) don't shift ahead an hour just because the clock says so. They do shift with natural daylight changes throughout the year - ever notice how gradual those are?

Yesterday, I woke up, came downstairs, did a few things, and then filled in my pacing chart. And I thought I'd lost my mind. There was an hour and a half between the time I'd woken up and the time my computer showed. But there was no way I'd spent that long making breakfast and checking my e-mail. But, with the brain fog and all, I thought - wow I must have spent way longer than I thought. Then a friend posted the reminder on Facebook. Ah, Facebook, how did I live without you? And I slapped my forehead and said - ok that all makes sense now, and proceeded to change the clock on my computer. Backwards. The wrong way.

It took me several tries of changing my phone and my computer clocks, before I finally googled "time now Toronto" - sweet, sweet Google - and then, and only then, remembered "fall back, spring forward." I was so very very confused. And then I had to work out how to shift the time around in my pacing chart! Oh boy was that ever a frenzy of cutting and pasting.

I've never been a morning person. All my friends and family will attest to that. Generally, it has been best to avoid Andy before nine, noon on weekends. Now, I have forced myself into a healthy sleep schedule, because I need it in order to regulate my energy. A lot of effort has gone into this. I do not easily adapt to strict schedules - I prefer the ebbs and flows of fractal time and natural rhythms - so I really have had to train my body over the last couple of months, to go to sleep and wake up at certain times. Yesterday, I thought I'd slept in. I hadn't. But I did lose an hour of sleep, somehow, I think. Maybe.

But today, we had to get up for school, and that was all kinds of evilness. My poor sister called me to arrange morning pickup times, and had to deal with a very groggy unable to think me. Sorry, sweetie! And thanks to that, my mom was late for work, and my son missed his daily math in the morning. Sorry! Again! I wasn't hungry for breakfast, so that happened later than usual, which is going to throw off my eating schedule now for the day, too.

It is very frustrating. Finally I was getting into a decent semblance of a schedule, and it all gets thrown off by a bunch of "old dead white men" who thought it would help economically. Thanks, Ben Franklin. I don't know if it actually helps countries economically. I don't know if it actually saves energy. I do know that I'm not the only one who dislikes it. I know there are more car accidents, and such things. I do know that it is a pain in the neck, and that this year, especially, I am having a particularly rough time of it.

Standard time is an artificial construct that helps us maintain order as a society. I get that, and I grudgingly oblige. But why add another artificial construct on top of the artificial construct?

[deep breath] Ok. I'm good now. Thanks.