Monthly Archives: October 2006

What time is it?! Brain Dripping

So I woke up this morning having set (most of) the clocks back an hour for the switch back to Daylight Standard Time (IE, the time the rest of the world has been using since the first person noticed that the sun comes and goes on a kind of a pattern). The first thing I noticed was that the two alarm clocks in the bedroom (His/Hers) read 7:10 & 6:10 respectively. These two clocks claim to be Atomic Clock Radio Signal Receiving Clocks that never need setting as they glean the magic of time from radio signals and set themselves. That’s great except (as we learned last year) hers, when resetting to DST also resets the timezone to the default central time zone, so it was actually 7:10 not 6:10 and she was an hour late. To complicate matters, Verizon Wireless in it’s infinite wisdom, hadn’t yet changed back so they said 8:10 making her an hour early. Heather acknowledges that I’ve taken over the clock setting/maintaining job in the household. I pride myself on be punctual. This is an unrealistic self-image though as I’m only actually punctual about half the time even though I have a clock (or two or three) in every room to make certain I know what time it is. At one time I even made a study of how far people set their clocks ahead. It was called The Dalton Difference. So you can guess that it’s extremely frustrating that I DON’T KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS! Adding to the fun, there is the “Energy Policy Act of 2005″ that extends Daylight Saving Time by two weeks. OMG! Does that go into effect this year? Was the news lady on the radio wrong and only Verizon correct? To set matters straight I did what any red blooded American would do. I hit the internet and checked both CNN & FoxNews. If THEY agree then it must be true. I learned that we did “Fall Back” an hour at 2 AM this morning and it is indeed 7:10. Besides Heather being late for her class (yeah, on a Sunday. That’s continuing education for ya.) it was crucial that I knew just what time it was because if I turned on the TV this afternoon and found out that I missed an hour of Football, I’d have to be quite upset. Now, to go and finish setting all of the clocks:

Kitchen Clock – Atomic. Sets itself (and is used as the reference point for all other clocks in the household)
Rice Cooker clock – for setting the timer.
Microwave clock – for knowing how long your forgotten quiche has been sitting in there. Stereo clock – It has a display so they felt the need to add a clock.
VCR clock – For timed recordings. It doesn’t even display, but it’s in there!
DVD player clock – Again for timed recordings, but this one does display.
Luxury Bathroom clock – So Heather knows how early she is in the morning.
Utility Bathroom clock – So Eric knows how late he is in the morning.
Nightstand 1 clock – Heather’s with the broken time zone.
Nightstand 2 clock – Eric’s with the “atomic” featured turned off so to be correctly in sync with other atomic clocks.
Wrist watch clock – *NIU, needs batteries.
Four PC clocks – Set themselves back an hour automatically based on this being the last Sunday in October. What will happen NEXT year?
Den clock – Tells me it’s friggin’ late and I need to get off of the computer and go to bed.
Lock Haven University Mantle clock – Sits in the den under my diploma and chimes on the hour.
Poptarts Gag Alarm clock – Don’t send in your box tops for this clock. The hour hand doesn’t spin so I really don’t know what time it is!
Aquarium Timer
My Car clock
– Which I have to look up in the owners manual to figure out how to change twice a year. So sad.
Heather’s Car clock – Which will be correct again if we just wait until March.
Embedded clocks – these are the more annoying ones because you might not remember to get them all until months go by and you’re really tempted to just wait until the next switch when they’ll be right again. These include, but are not limited to: My MP3 Player, iPod, Digital Camera, Heather’s Not -digital Camera, Video Camera, Cable Modem, Router, Printer, Portable-Stereo, Portable-CD Player, Walkman, Stop Watch, Handheld Games, Calculator, Organizer, Spell-checker and both Pedometers.

That’s it. I’m going back to bed and not setting an alarm because I don’t think the clock knows what time it is either.

UPDATE!
11/2/06 – We had a power outage last night and now I have to set half of the clocks all over again. Hooray!

Obligatory Links:
Explanation from the US Government concerning Daylight Saving Time
Ok, so what time is it?
A less US-Centric What-time-is-it link

Greenwich Mean Time