Time Warp

This weekend, of course, we go through the semi-annual ritual of resetting every clock. Regardless of the merits (or lack thereof) of Standard vs. Daylight-saving Time, I think this is the one where I get an extra hour of sleep, right?

Except this time, I have a flight to catch first thing Sunday morning, which adds a little wrinkle of nervousness to the plan. (If I fail to set the clock, would I be an hour early or an hour late for the flight?) It also adds this twist to jet lag: Between going to bed Saturday and going to bed Sunday, I will be setting my clock back FOUR hours — not just one, and not just the transcontinental three.

Or how about this to warp your mind? Officially we set the clocks back at 2:00 a.m. This means that when I get up for my flight around 3:30 on Sunday morning, some of my co-workers and friends in LA will likely still be enjoying the tail end of their department Halloween party, as it will be 1:30 — only TWO hours' difference. See, Eastern Time will be on Standard while Pacific Time would still be on Daylight-saving for a bit longer.

(I do recall that when I lived in Washington State, the Legislature had to decide whether clocks went from 1:59 a.m. back to 1:00 a.m., or went from 2:00 a.m. back to 1:01 a.m. See, if the clock never struck 2, then alcohol-serving establishments didn't have to close until it did actually become 2:00.)