by jphilo | Oct 28, 2014 | Top Ten Tuesday
10. It’s the closest thing to time travel most of us will ever get.
9. There’s more time to turn the lights down low for a romantic evening and not notice the need to dust the furniture.
8. When it’s dark by suppertime, jammies are perfectly acceptable dining attire.
7. Once everyone’s wearing jammies to the table, serving breakfast for supper is also perfectly acceptable.
6. So is going to bed early after meal clean up. Which is incredibly easy when cereal bowls and spoons are the only things that need washing.
5. School children who wear jammies to the table, eat breakfast for supper, and wake up early because they went to bed early the night before no longer have to wait for the bus in the dark on school days.
4. Writers and bloggers who wear jammies to the table, eat breakfast for supper, and wake up early because they went to bed early no longer have to take their morning walk in the dark either.
3. On evenings when people don’t hit the hay immediately after wearing jammies to the table and eating breakfast for supper, it’s too dark to do anything but binge watch the Modern Family Season 5 DVD, which you have on loan from the library for 1 short week after waiting months for your turn to check it out.
2. Fall back in the fall means an extra hour of sleep this weekend. Heavenly!
1. The end of Daylight Savings Time means only 4 short months until March 9 when it and spring make their glorious re-appearance.
What would you add to the list? Leave a comment!
by jphilo | Nov 1, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
Thanks to some strange current events, I’m scratching my head and wondering if the calendar is right. Can this really be November 1?
- This year’s later-than-usual end to Daylight Savings Time led to confusion each of the past three Sundays. On each one, I figured the night before was the end of daylight savings time, and I missed the extra hour of sleep. But no. This year, DST doesn’t end until this coming weekend.
- The appearance of Hurricane Sandy so far north this late in the year left east coasters and weather forecasters confused. My theory is that the media’s to blame for referring to Sandy as Frankenstorm. Give an innocent storm surge a name like that, and it’s bound to show up for Halloween and cause plenty of damage.
- Thanks to last spring’s early warm spell and late frost, the apple crop tanked and our favorite orchard can’t make cider. The season feels empty without my favorite fall treat–hot, spiced Deal’s apple cider.
What makes fall feel like fall to you? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Mar 15, 2011 | Walking Down the Gravel Road
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Both the cardinals and Daylight Savings Time have returned as they do each spring. And this post from March 16, 2009 is a hopeful reminder that just like the cardinals serenading our gravel road, I can sing.
I Can Sing – Recycled
This morning, I checked the forecast: sunny and highs in the sixties. Bright and early, not wanting to miss a minute of such optimistic weather, I strapped on my camera and lugged the tripod on my walk, determined to photograph the cardinals I’d seen and heard everywhere the day before.
The dawn was grey at first, the sun not even visible. Twenty minutes later, when the sun finally woke up and showed itself, the tripod had worn out it’s welcome, and the camera was a lead weight. Apparently the cardinals are still adjusting to Daylight Savings Time, because it was another twenty minutes before they woke up.
By then I’d wrestled with the tripod and camera twice – once to photograph a red-headed woodpecker on a telephone pole, and again to capture some wrens setting up housekeeping in a bluebird house up the road a ways. Finally, outside my kitchen door at the end of my walk, a cardinal began singing from the top of our neighbor’s giant spruce.
The tripod, now an experienced traveler, waited patiently while I mounted the camera and started snapping.
One bright red bird, small but able to fill the enormous blue sky with song, reminded me of the tasks on my to do lists this week. I am too small to complete them. They are too elusive for me to capture. But they are the song I’ve been given by the Creator of birds and sky.
In His hand, I can sing.
by jphilo | Mar 10, 2009 | Daily Life
Yesterday’s blog listed the top ten differences between southern California and the Midwest. Today’s list provides unwelcome proof that March in Iowa, in strong competition with November, is the state’s least favorable month.
10. As soon as the sun starts rising at an optimistic time, Daylight Savings Time begins
and pushes dawn back an hour.
9. It has rained for five days straight. SInce today is March 10, it has rained for half the
month.
8. When the rain becomes unbearable, the snow begins.
7. The gravel road and our driveway look like something the cat drug in.
6. The mice in our garage, cowed by winter’s cold and relatively inactive, have perked up
and invaded my car again. As always, they leave Hiram’s pick up alone.
5. Our daughter is “getting away” for spring break. Apparently, even Minneapolis is more
glamorous in March than is our fair state.
4. Morning walks are gloomy. (See above picture.)
3. Hiram blanches at the mention of “FAFSA.”
2. Pretty pastel Easter decorations perpetrate the cruel hoax that spring is just around the
corner.
1. Our one warm March day pushed the daffodils above ground, but they’ve been
shivering so much since the cold return, they won’t contemplate exposing themselves
further.
There, I’ve expressed my hostility told March and feel much better. In the 21 days until April begins, I’ll keep my umbrella handy, stock up on mouse traps, and knit gloves for the daffodils. I’m sure they’ll appreciate the effort.
