Thursday, October 29, 2009

Goodbye Daylight Savings Time

This Sunday at precisely 2 o'clock in the morning, we here in New York (and many other places) will "fall back" and say goodbye to Daylight Savings Time once again. Of course if you live somewhere like South Bend, Indiana, you do nothing and just wake up in the morning trying to figure out in whose time zone you are this month.......

In my house, Daylight Savings Time is an event approached with a reverence reserved for those of true German extraction.

Immediately following havdalah (for which great pains have been taken to avoid rushing through), Avram sets out to the task at hand. First the oven and microwave timers are set with great precision, making sure that the time is correct down to the second. From there we move to various Shabbos clocks and timers scattered throughout the house. This is followed by all manner of wall clocks and alarm clocks (did you know that many Yekkes have clocks in their bathrooms?). The final step, hopefully completed before the appointed hour, is the "Changing of the Watches". It's quite a ceremony... you should come by some time.

12 comments:

DD1 said...

This "ceremony" has got to be one of the most confusing..."If the microwave clock reads 10:45, and Daddy has already been in the kitchen, does that make it really 11:45 or was he just putting things away from Shabbos?"

harry-er than them all said...

don't forget the famous break-in to KAJ monsey at 2am a few years back. someone broke into the shul to change the clock so that it would never be wrong.
(i even have sources to back up this story)

Staying Afloat said...

Do you also change your smoke detector batteries?

G6 said...

Staying Afloat -

Thanks for the very important public service announcement.

There are those who also flip their mattresses right about now as well (...talk about losing the entire hour of sleep that you just gained :D ...)

G6 said...

DD1 -
Thanks for the laugh!!!
You've hit on a very important point.
During the course of this protracted "ceremony" nobody is quite sure what time it really is......

Yekkishe Bekishe said...

This is a very timely ceremony. The only important question inquiring minds want to know is........ DOES THIS APPLY ONLY TO YEKKES????

ProfK said...

We have our ceremony at a later time--between 1:00 and 2:00. We've found that at that late hour people are a little fuzzy about what time it is anyway, so changing the clock doesn't overly stress them. Those who are already asleep have the easiest transition.

Jron said...

I very much procrastinate in changing some clocks. In fact some watches never get changed at all. Drives your s-i-l crazy!

Everybody has their mishegas.

Anonymous said...

k, harry, fess up your sources....

get an atomic clock to match them all

Anonymous said...

In addition to the usual clocks and microwave, I have 6 programmable thermostats that need changing (count 'em, 6)

YW said...

I just want to see if the blog clock automatically changes. I'll find out then go back to sleep.

YW said...

Yup. Good night.