Adjusting With the Times – With Daylight Savings Time

The farmers.

Whenever someone complains, “Why do we even DO daylight savings time?” someone inevitably answers, “The farmers.”

Completely annoyed that someone sold the idea that we do daylight savings because of  “the farmers,” I can’t even say “the farmers” anymore without using air parenthesis and being a little snide about it.

Kind of always comes out, “Because of “the FARMERS.””

I finally looked it up.

Guess what the number one myth is on why we change our clocks?

“The FARMERS.”

I knew it!  Stupid farmer myth.

There is another about using less energy (which was debunked because we actually use more) and got straight to the heart of the matter.

From the article here:

“The first time daylight saving time was adopted was back in WWI. Not by us, but by the German Empire. Yes, you’re groggy and tired in the morning because of Kaiser Wilhelm. The idea was that they were going to have to save money for the war effort and assumed that this would help in that process. That assumption led to a whole lot of other countries picking up the idea without properly studying the effects.”

I guess now it is going to come out like, “Because of “Kaiser WILHELM.””

I am guessing that “Kaiser WILHELM” must not have had young kids when he came up with this idea.  He probably wasn’t trying to get young kids to bed.  Or try to peel them from their beds the next day when their internal schedule said it was time to be asleep.

“Kaiser WILHELM.”  Ugh.

Today, we are a family of “ugh’s.”

I peeked at the clock this morning in distaste.

“Stupid FARMERS.”

I got out of bed and began our morning routine.

Five jabs and twenty minutes later, I finally see Bobby’s eyes.  One deep sigh and he rolled out of bed.

I recognized my husband had followed my suit and turned on his autopilot.

Not appearing to be processing language yet, I handed Bobby a toothbrush.  He seemed to know what to do.

Once those two left, I churned out five miles on the treadmill.  Five very cranky miles.

Then I started to wake the littles.

Catelyn sat up when poked, eyes still closed.  Declan came downstairs to return to a sleeping position on the couch.  He stood up, got a blanket and returned to a sleeping position.  I check back on Catelyn to find her back laying down.

I poked again until I heard her hiss, “Fine!”

With a lot of persuading and maneuvering, I got the kids to school.

Once I was alone, I found my chair and my forehead found the table.

“Ugh.”

That was it.  That was the only thought I could muster.  My list for the day wasn’t forming.  Coherent thoughts weren’t connecting.

I mindlessly went through email.  I marked a couple of articles to read later.  And went to the hole of mindlessness.

I turned on Facebook.  Clicked and scrolled.  A like here and there – and then finally a giggle at this:
A few minutes later, I turned off the computer.  There was only one thing to do.  Which is probably the last thing you would think.

 

 

I went for a run.  A nice 2-hour long trail run.  I don’t listen to music when I run outside.  I listen around me.  And I heard peace today.

 

Eventually thoughts came back and started to connect.  I made sense of my day.

Now, I am ready for the kids to come home.  I am prepared for a little bit of cranky.  I also am excited for an early bed time.

And until I find my bed, I will be cursing “Kaiser WILHELM” and his stupid idea of daylight savings time.