Disagreeable Stinky Time (DST)

I used to smile a lot. Unfortunately my facial expression has changed by degrees as we've gone deeper and deeper into a wild Michigan winter. It has not helped that a daughter in Virginia keeps
talking about 60 degree temperatures and possible flowers making their way into sunlight.  Especially when we still have snow drifts up to the windows.  I know, this kind of stuff is not unusual in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but, hey, we're not the Upper Peninsula.

To add to everything we contend with Daylight Savings Time.

Or, maybe, it's just contending with time.  A clock in the living room indicates one time. The two in the kitchen say something else. The bedroom clock seems to be on time, but the clock in the car is
not.  And maybe it even gets to my having to ask what day of the week it is.  And the response is,
Just another cloudy, snowy, chilly day in the north side of the lower peninsula of Michigan.

Then life comes up with another thought: how does one calculate time in another part of the country?
We have relatives all over the place - at least three. Arlington, Washington, near Seattle for instance.
We know we can't get in touch with him much earlier than eleven in the morning. How about Lake Tahoe? Or Yuma, Arizona. Are they on Pacific, or are they on Mountain time?

I'm reminded of the time we made a trip to Honolulu, Hawaii. I tried calling the home office at six at night and all I got was a familiar voice on an answering machine. Okay, what time is it in Florida when it is six or eight in the evening?  Or the times I was  in Italy or Holland  trying to contact my wife who was in Detroit and having to wait an hour so even to get an overseas phone line to begin with?  No satellites in those days and one had to cough up lira by the gross load just to make the call.

In the latest Saturday Evening Post there is a tongue-in-cheek story about Indiana's love/hate relationship with Daylight Savings Time.  Indiana was one of the last Daylight Savings Time holdouts, sticking for a long time with year-round Eastern Standard Time.  Well, that was most of Indiana - there are a few corners up in the northwest corner that relate to Chicago (Central Standard Time).  It became a bit challenging for us since I was serving a four-church parish at the time. Three of the churches were on Chicago time; one was on Indianapolis time. There was one time I showed up at a church a bit late to find the congregation on the front steps and one of the leaders proclaiming that they were about to begin the service without me.  I'll  admit- country folk are pretty self- sufficient and I have no doubt they could, or would, have done a fine job of winging a service.

So, I'm not going to dwell on long distance time constraints - I've got enough challenges just figuring
out what time it is, right here in our comfy-cozy home on the shores of Lake Huron.


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