Daylight Savings Time

Before we get too far into this whole April thing, and time has passed, I want to take the time to talk about time and go on record as saying I love daylight savings time.

Two of my favorite non-traditional "holidays" on the calendar are the first day of winter (because the days start getting longer) and daylight savings time. Long days, with daylight into the evening hours, is bliss!

I think my passion for daylight savings time has to do with the fact that I am a weird combination of night owl who loves evening light. I could sleep until noon every day of the week. My day doesn't get started until at least noon. Lunch is my breakfast. I usually say I don't eat breakfast, which is true, in that I normally do not eat a meal in the early morning hours. My stomach does not wake up until noon. But if my body doesn't wake up until noon, they are suddenly in synch, and I can have my breakfast over lunch, and my lunch over dinner. Then, I can skip dinner (which would probably be sometime around midnight, or later, in my day, although I'm not opposed to a midnight snack now and then).

I think our friends in Arizona have the right idea, only backwards. Arizona doesn't do daylight savings time. They refuse to change their clocks when most of the rest of the country does. So, from now until October when standard time resumes, Arizona, which is in the mountain time zone, and California and Nevada (and Washington and most of Oregon for that matter are on the same time. It's now a little after midnight in Palm Springs. What time is it in Phoenix? Same time! I admire Arizona's pluck!

I want to take that same stubborn spunk and individualism and refuse to return to standard time. Think I can get the rest of the Coachella Valley to go along? California even?

But think about it! It makes sense, especially here in the Palm Springs area. If you've ever been here, you would know that we have this big mountain range to the west, which means we lose the afternoon sun about an hour or so before the sun actually sets. So during standard time, our mountain sunset would be at roughly the same time as the sun would be setting in the rest of Southern California (well not literally the same time, but the same time on the clock).

OK, so I concede that the rest of the valley or the county or the state, let alone the nation, probably won't sign off on my idea. Maybe I'll have to go it alone. Start my own time zone, which can travel with me when I go on the road to Oregon or Illinois or Timbuktu for that matter. I'll call it (when here in Palm Springs and on the West Coast) PGT, or Pacific G-man Time. If I travel to Arizona, it will be Mountain G-man Time (or MGT). A trek to the East Coast would be a voyage into Eastern G-man Time or EGT.

It's an idea whose time has come.

Time
Spring
Daylight savings time
Palm Springs

Want fries with your ketchup?

It's time to play a little catch-up. My routine, including my blogging routine, has been off since I returned from vacation. Everything is out of whack. But I have been fairly productive and got a lot of errands done when I wasn't sitting here typing much ado about nada.

So, here are some of the highlights of the last week for the smartasses (yes, that include you Brat) who left comments on the last post on here. But the rest of you can feel free to read along as well.

With this ring, I thee pawn

The good news is that I found a local jeweler willing to take a slightly used engagement ring on consignment. The bad news is, a buyer has still not been found, so I still don't have any cash in my meager coffers, otherwise known as my checking and (ha, ha) savings accounts. And the depressing news, though not surprising, it that the jeweler said he would probably only be able to sell it for about somewhere around a quarter of what I paid for it.

The moral of the story, don't buy your jewelry from a large chain retailer. Or is it never buy expensive jewelry symbolizing undying love for a woman who only hold onto it long enough to invalidate the 90-day moneyback return policy. I can't remember which one is the real moral, but when I figure it out I'll let you know.

Strange dreams

Speaking, indirectly, of the ex, for some strange reason (and maybe it's the whole attempt to sell the ring thing) she has been making periodic co-starring appearances in my dreams lately. I find this quite annoying since I have actually got to the point where I have been able to go days without even thinking about her. Now, she's back, if only to haunt my dreams. OK, well one of them was not bad, since it was a sex dream. Hell, we only had sex once in the entire 6 months of our engagement, so I got as lucking in a dream as I was for all of 2004.

Working vacation

The last couple of days of my vacation were spent running errands. All the mundane things of like that I pile up when I'm working.

I got the oil changed in my truck and got it washed. So it's looking decent for an aging gal. Not that I can afford to drive her now. The price of gas has hit $2.50 a gallon here in Palm Springs for the cheapest grade at the cheapest stations. Premium grades and some stations are even higher. I think I should have grabbed my old 10-speed bike out of my parents' garage when I was there to visit.

I also did some shopping for my daughter's birthday presents and got those shipped off in time to arrive for her birthday, which was Saturday. I also bought a couple of DVDs and computer games for myself.

And yes, I have wasted untold blogging hours this week playing a new computer game. But you will all be glad to hear that I have saved the world from neo-Nazi terrorists, but please don't tell anyone I told you. This was all covert ops, and I was sworn to secrecy. So, shhhhh!

Work, the pope and missed birthdays

I don't talk about work on here, much if ever. I have no desire to be Dooced, thank you very much. But I will say this, the days back at work after been gone for a week-plus have been long. And to top it all, the pope's dying on Saturday meant I got to work Saturday. I wasn't a follower of his or anything, and I didn't care much for his fashion sense, but I wasn't too keen on having to work my first Saturday back in town. And to top it off it was also my daughter's and a good friend's birthday. Well, at least I got to call both of them. Oh, and if you bother to check out Gene's blog, I'll be curious if anyone else thinks there is some irony to the pope of the Catholic Church dying on Gene's birthday. There is a metaphor in there somewhere Gene, I just haven't completely unearthed it yet. By the way my 14-year old daughter is attending a Catholic school. Oh, and the last time a pope for the Catholic church was selected, I was about her age.

Misc.
I'm sure I'm leaving something out. Some witty observations I intended to post, some salient details that would give insight or share wisdom. But maybe that time spend lounging by the pool in the warm sun Sunday afternoon bleached the thoughts from my brain. Or maybe I'm too tired to think straight at the moment. I got up early to write my column this morning so I could make a lunch appointment with a former college professor today before work. And now, I'm running on fumes. So, anything else will have to wait for later.

Yea, I feel a little guilt for not posting more the last week or so. But I'm sure I'll get over it.

Blogging

Bad blogger

How lame am I?

I posted more while I was on vacation than I have since I've been home.

Would you believe that it's been a busy week?

Anyone buying that?

Anyone?

Blogging