Turning the clock back
@owlwings (43915)
Cambridge, England
October 25, 2020 8:37am CST
Here in Europe we set the clock back an hour this morning. Some of you may do this next week; some may not do it at all and some may even set it forward!
Changing the time always used to feel exciting for me. One end of the day (usually the latter end, when I woke at 7 or 8) became darker or lighter. I don't think I ever worried about the 'extra hour' or the 'lost hour'.
Now that I have a cat who tells me he needs feeding when a certain light level is reached, it's supremely unimportant. (Cats vary, by the way: some tell the time by the light level. some by other people's alarm clocks - often far beyond our own range of hearing; most, I think, by their own inscrutable clocks which tell them unerringly that breakfast or time to go out is NOW, whatever their human minions think. Don't start me on cats!
Now how would it be, I wondered this morning, if we had to set the clock back a day, rather than an hour? Or a week, or a month, or even a year? Would it give us 'time'?
I don't think so, but then who am I but an owl who sees quite well in the dark and blinks when shown anything stronger!
18 people like this
17 responses
@FourWalls (62120)
• United States
25 Oct 20
Here in America, this time next week it won’t be this time next week.
3 people like this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
25 Oct 20
@FourWalls 
I think that it all began some months before the US (or maybe any of us) began to take it seriously.
I think that it all began some months before the US (or maybe any of us) began to take it seriously.2 people like this
@FourWalls (62120)
• United States
25 Oct 20
@owlwings — speaking of that, it’s interesting to note that all of this started when the US moved the clocks forward one hour. Now that we’re changing back, maybe we’ll get out of the Twilight Zone! 
2 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (86757)
• United States
25 Oct 20
Just a minute I will have to discuss this with someone more scholarly than me.
3 people like this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
26 Oct 20
There was a time during the war when we had Double Daylight Saving time and, in summer, the clocks were put forward two hours. That meant that it was almost midnight (by the clock) before the light faded completely. You can imagine the sort of havoc that played with a small boy's sleeping pattern! Of course, we thought it was great!
2 people like this
@Chellezhere (5363)
• United States
12 Apr 21
Now that we have clocks that set themselves, I don't care whether we spring ahead or fall behind, as long as I have remembered to put more than enough treats in Henry's bowl before my bedtime that he does not eat them all up before I am awake.
2 people like this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
13 Apr 21
I have a watch which updates itself from a time signal from somewhere in the north of England. I got it mainly because it has good, clear numbers but it also speaks the time (and the date) at the press of a button - useful if it's dark and you can't switch on the light to read it! I once watched to see what it would do when the clocks went forward and the hands duly spun like a mad thing until it had set itself an hour forward. I have yet to see what it does when the clocks go back!
1 person likes this
@Chellezhere (5363)
• United States
13 Apr 21
@owlwings I am legally blind and use a talking clock 24/7/365.
1 person likes this
@arunima25 (85274)
• Bangalore, India
25 Oct 20
Getting an extra day sounds interesting!
We do not have this practice here in our country . But I remember setting my clock during my stay in US. It was fun and exciting for me in the first year.
2 people like this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
25 Oct 20
OK lets go back 50 years (to 1970). If we could have known anything at all about what we do now, I think we might have changed things and made something of a difference (though I do wonder whether it would have been as much as we think - we might have avoided knocking down as much and building so many monstrosities but I think we'd still be in the same energy and economic crises
2 people like this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
25 Oct 20
@ScotMac Perhaps we all would have done. I don't think that, at that point in my life, I could have made any better or worse choice than I did! For me, 1970 was just after one of my'turning points'. I was in a relatively 'good place' then. I guess that there are critical 'fork' times for everyone and (of course) they will be different for each of us.
2 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (45484)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
25 Oct 20
We set our clocks back next Sunday, the first Sunday in November. If this was a "normal" year, there'd be an extra hour for trick or treating, or at least, there used to be. These days the trick or treating doesn't last much past 8pm, not like in the 60s and 70s when it'd go on until 10pm.
2 people like this
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
30 Oct 20
Iol on your last paragraph.
I agree on the time lost or gained. Even though we bemoan lost time we whittle it away doing frivolous things enough that if we were more motivated think what we could accomplish. Even type A personalities it workaholics if they aren't one and the same could allow down to spend more time with those they live with.
Our time changes this weekend we fall behind and come spring it will be spring ahead.
Good luck with your cats. I'd think cats would be afraid of owls.
2 people like this
@Namelesss (3368)
• United States
29 Oct 20
LOL, I have a cat too who absolutely knows when it's time for me to get up, which is soon as he says so
Spring forward, fall back!
Spring forward, fall back!1 person likes this
@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Oct 20
Here we set the clocks back next week. Wow! That is cool that you don't mind the time change. I always find it a bit jarring.
As long as we set the calendar back a day on the weekend and not a Monday ha ha!
Cats yes, the cat will let you know what time it really is.
2 people like this
@jvicentevalera (13671)
• Santiago, Chile
25 Oct 20
In Chile, they set the clock an hour forward. Now sunset starts at 8 PM.
2 people like this
@popciclecold (35084)
• United States
25 Oct 20
You are so right, my cat wakes me up every morning at the same time.
1 person likes this
