Time Outed
In all of China there is only one time zone. There's also only one political party, and no elections to speak of. But that's another story.
This one is about this morning, when most of us Americans switched from daylight savings time to standard time. I had two strikes against my being able to navigate this time slip successfully. First, my husband Peter, who is my go-to numbers guy, was out of town rebuilding his mom's back deck. Second, the time mattered: I had an 8:30 am breakfast scheduled with two friends at a nearby restaurant.
Since I don't read the papers, it was sheer luck that I even knew time was moving back to standard. But I'd heard somebody mention it, and I know the "spring ahead, fall back" mantra. So when I went to bed last night I carefully moved the bedroom clock back one hour. Then I put my watch next to the bed as well (in case of a power outage), but did not remember to change its time. Or at least I don't think I did.
I woke early, according to the clock, and decided to start the laundry and chop vegetables for a soup I planned to make for dinner. Then I looked at my watch and couldn't remember if I'd changed it or not. Then I looked at other clocks in the house. I had three different times going on: 6:05, 7:05 and 8:05. Most of the clocks had the 8:05 time. Yikes! I would be late meeting my friends. I knew that some clocks nowadays switch automatically. So which was right? I looked at the phone, surely one of the automatic changers. It said 8:06. Double yikes!
I quickly got dressed and flipped on my laptop. It said 7:07. I googled Pacific Standard Time and it said 7:08. I still wasn't entirely sure. I waited a few minutes and googled again. 7:10.
I met my friends happily on time, and even got the second load of laundry in before leaving the house.
But, pathetically, I still don't understand how the clock I set back one hour last night came up wrong.
