Time And Time Again

 

It's That Time of Year again - i.e. time to repeat once again that I don't get the point of "daylight saving time", and probably never will, and that I wish they'd put a stop to all that nonsense once and for all... (Etc etc. You've heard it all before!)

Grudingly, I changed all of my manual clocks and watches before I went to bed last night (probably except one, that I won't discover until later). But of course that did not help my "inner clock" in the slightest.

So this morning I had breakfast at 10:30 (clock time); and two hours later, of course my stomach still does not agree with the clocks about it being time for lunch already.

Outdoors, Nature is keeping its own slow pace; still mixing sunny days with more grey and foggy and rainy ones with lower temperatures. (Today seems to be one of the latter kind.)

 

Having whiled away a while writing this blog post, it might now be time to start preparing a "late" light lunch after all... (Clock on my computer screen showing 13:20.)

 

The Mystery of the Missing Watch

 

It's not just bird feeders that mysteriously go missing around here. (Cf. my recent "Weekend" post.) Yesterday, when I was going to the hospital for my scan, I couldn't find my wristwatch. I only wear the watch when I go out; but especially when I'm going somewhere by bus, and/or have appointments to keep, I really miss it if I'm not wearing it. (My phone usually rests in my handbag except when I'm using it to take photos.) When I get home, I normally (automatically, by habit) take it off and put it on top of the chest of drawers in the hall. And if it's not there, I will usually find it either on the kitchen table, my bedside table, the coffee table next to my TVchair, or the desk in my study...

Yesterday, it was not to be found in any of those places, so I had to leave home and manage my bus travels and hospital appointment without it (frequently checking the time on my phone instead). 

When I got back home, I resumed my search. Besides the most likely places, I also looked for it in a lot of extremely unlikely ones - but to no avail. 

I also could not remember when it was that I had last worn it. Sunday, I did not go out all day. Monday, I was only out for a very short walk. I might have worn the watch then - but not necessarily. Tuesday was laundry day. I probably did not wear the watch then as I had the phone with me down to the laundry room. And last week I did not walk any further than the cemetery either, and might or might not have worn the watch... But if I did, could perhaps the wristband have broken so that I had dropped it somewhere outdoors...? It did not seem very likely, but then neither did it seem likely that I had managed to "lose" the watch within my own flat!

After another indoors search this morning, I gave up, and decided that I had better just buy a new one. My "lost" one was very far from new anyway, and of no great value. It was another sunny day without snow and ice, so a good day for errands. I went for a walk into town, to a watch shop there, and bought myself a new, cheapish, rather similar one.

After that purchase, I took a bus to the shopping centre "across town" for some other errands (more about that in some other post); and from there another bus back to the railway station, and then another 15 min walk back home from there. 

Later in the afternoon, I was going to take out some garbage to the bins at the corner of the building. I opened a drawer in the hall bureau and grabbed my set of "basement" keys - which includes the keys to the laundry room and my basement storage rooms, and is on a neck strap.

As I picked them up, something came loose from the knuckled up neck strap... Guess what?

Mystery solved. Obviously, on Tuesday - laundry day - my watch had been lying in its usual place on top of the chest of drawers in the hall. Coming up from my last turn to the laundry room, I had put down the key-strap on top of it, and then when I put the keys back in the drawer, the watch had got entangled in the strap and went down in the drawer with those keys... Just a look in the drawer during my serach was not enough to detect it; and when going out yesterday and today, I used another set of keys that I keep in my handbag.

So now I have two...! (Old one, left. New one, right.)

I had to laugh, because I even said to the girl who sold me the new watch in the shop, that "if nothing else, buying a new one is probably the best way to get the old one to turn up"...

 

Back on Winter Time

Last night was a long one. For some reason I felt unusually tired yesterday evening, so went to bed and turned off the light "early" (around 10 pm), leaving the changing of clocks until the morning. I always wake up a few times during the night, but last night I went back to sleep fairly quickly each time - including after waking up around 6 or 7 (depending on which clock)... Next time I woke up the manual clocks were showing almost 11 am - so I was rather relieved to be allowed to turn them back an hour!! 

I still have about half a dozen clocks/watches that need to be changed manually. Usually, I tend to forget at least one. (If I did this time too, I have not yet discovered it...)

Outdoors, it's foggy and rainy, which probably contributed to my hibernation mood. 

However, this afternoon the rain stopped for a while, and we even got some glimpses of blue sky between the clouds. So I got out for a half hour walk after all.

Another sure sign that we are now back on Winter Time is that I have started my annual re-watching of the American TV series Gilmore Girls. It's been my No. 1 "Comfort" TV show ever since it started, I think (2001 in Sweden). (After the series was complete, I bought it on DVD; but nowadays it's also available on Netflix.) 

That Time of Year

Only three days left of October... The leaves are dropping fast from the trees now; and tonight before I go to bed, I'll be changing a number of clocks back from daylight saving time to "normal" (winter) time... 

For the record, I still wish we'd stop this nonsense of fiddling with Time twice a year. (I keep repeating that every time.) For my own part I feel like my Body Clock is pretty much stuck on Normal Time all year round, but changing the clocks messes with my daily routines, and keeping in sync with the rest of the world. (Like meals vs certain radio and TV programs, and when to go out for walks. Things like that.)

 

 (AI generated images)

31st October - The Times They Are A'Changin' (Again)

 

In my opinion, we really need to put a stop to this nonsense of turning time back and forth twice a year. I think the EU actually did make some sort of decision about it a couple of years ago. But they (or I suppose I should say "we") still didn't manage to get countries to decide whether to stop the clock on 'winter' time or 'summer' time. And at least here in Sweden, so far, we're still carrying on as usual. Which means that this weekend, it was That Time of Year again.

So yesterday evening, I decided to change my clocks before going to bed, so that they would all show the right time when I woke up today. In spite of all the WiFi clocks on various modern devices nowadays changing themselves, I still have quite a few clocks that need to be set manually - because at home, I don't like wearing my wrist watch, but prefer to have at least one wall or table clock in each room that will quickly tell me what time of day (or night) it is. 

So I made my clock-turning tour last night, and put all the clocks forward one hour. But when I'd finished that job, somehow something did not feel quite right about it...

Oops!

I realized my mistake, which meant I had to make another round, putting all the clocks back - and this time two hours... 

After I'd done that, I thought to myself that tomorrow (i.e. today) I'd probably still discover at least one that I forgot about, or got it wrong with. (That nearly always happens.) 

And of course I was right! 😂 (Do you spot it? I didn't notice until I decided to take my camera with me on a check-up round this afternoon...)

(The image at the top of the post is borrowed from somewhere on the Web. The ones in the collage at the bottom are all mine.)

 

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Postcrossing card from Russia (March 2019)
Desk clock by Fabergé, from the Peterhof Museum

 Postcrossing card from Poland (June 2018)

A clock from a Museum of History in Prague

 Postcrossing card from Germany (September 2018)

Yes, it's that time of year again... As in putting one's body clock out of order, and making sure that one has remembered to change every other clock and device in the house. Some of them take care of themselves nowadays, but that doesn't really make it any easier to remember the ones that don't. There always seems to be at least one I've forgotten. And if I haven't forgotten that I should do it, I've forgotten how to. (I actually thought of the camera this morning, only to discover that I don't remember where to find the date-and-time setting on that. So I'll need to find the manual first...)

My inner body clock is always the hardest to convince, though. (Surely it cannot be lunchtime already? I'm not hungry! Or bedtime when I'm still wide awake... Or time to get out of bed, when I just fell asleep? etc)

A piece of Good News (?) the other day was that the EU has now decided that all this nonsense about changing clocks back and forth really has to stop! Er... Wait a moment... Not immediately, of course... And let's not decide if the clocks should be stopped on winter or summer time; but let each country continue to argue about that for another couple of years... Maybe in 2021 we'll be ready for a whole new confusing European time zone system, with each country choosing its own time... (Or maybe we'll find we aren't, in which case we'll postpone, or decide something else...)

Lots of opinion polls being made at the moment, of course - and probably more to come, until a final decision is reached! I think I'd cast my vote on keeping "normal" time (i.e. "winter" time). But I guess "summer" time all year round would be ok as well. I just wish they'd stop meddling with it back and forth...

 Old sun dial at Algutsrum Church, Öland (2018)
(my own photo)

...

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’ 

Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'

(full lyrics here)

December 30

Weekend Postcards – Clocks / Time Tellers

Astronomical clock, Prague, Czech Republic
Postcard sent by Ginny from the US, June 2018

When this card arrived (this week), it seemed oddly familiar to me… Flickering through the postcrossing cards received over the past few months, I found that I had actually received another image of the exact same clock back in April (not previously shown on this blog, I think):

Postcrossing card sent from the Czech Republic,
April 2018

The sender adds the following info on the back:
”This clock is on Prague Town Hall. It is 608 years old. At the top of the clock there are two windows with figures walking around. On the left and right are Misery, Vanity, Lust and Death.”

On the same day as Ginny’s card, I also received this time-related card from John in England:

“Chester’s Town Criers – David & Julie Mitchell, the world’s first husband and wife Town Criers.”
Postcard sent from Chester, June 2018

In the past, when most people could not read or write, town criers were the means of proclaiming all kinds of news to the people of the town. And in some places, evidently, they are still keeping up the tradition!

Also this week, yet another time-telling card found its way through my letter-slot:

Postcrossing card from Poland, showing a timepiece from the History Museum in Kraków.

I don’t know Polish, but with the help of Google Translate I managed to decipher some of the printed text on the back of the card. It seems to say that this is mantel clock with a Cupid figurine, French, made of bronze, and from the end of the 19th century.

December 9 – Time To Watch Out

The wrist strap on my watch was worn out and needed replacing, and today when I was in town I stepped into a shop to buy a new one. Strap, that is – not watch. I was somewhat taken aback when, after I had expressed my wish, the girl behind the counter said: “It would be cheaper to buy a new watch.”

It’s not that I’m surprised at the fact as such. I know that’s how it is nowadays. My watch is not a valuable one; it was not expensive even when I bought it (some years and one or two straps and battery changes ago). I don’t wear it as a piece of precious jewellery, but for practical reasons when I’m out and about. At home, I take it off, as I have clocks in every room. But when I go out, I put on the watch. For one thing, when I’m not walking, I travel by bus. And buses run by timetables. (I might have to wait for the bus, the bus does not wait for me!)

But I digress. Back to the watch shop. From private economy point of view, I don’t doubt that it would be cheaper to just buy a new watch every time the clasp on the strap breaks, or perhaps even each time the battery runs out. To me it would still feel like a waste to do so, though, as long as I’m otherwise happy with the watch. So I just bought a new expensive black leather strap.

 

 

 

Buying More Time

In Sweden/Europe we made the customary switch to Summer Time, or Daylight Saving Time, between Saturday and Sunday the last weekend in March.

I never quite understood the “saving” part. It seems to me that what happens here in the North is that we lose an hour when the days are getting longer anyway, and don’t get it back until winter darkness falls (and then seems to fall all the more suddenly). Moreover, every six months I have to spend time just to check/reset a dozen or so clocks (and usually forgetting one or two). (Not to mention all the time spent on complaining about it!)

The most trouble in recent years I’ve had with a so-called “radio-controlled” clock, in spite of that being The One that one might be tempted to think one should be able to rely on in these kinds crises…

I think that while residing in my parents’ home it did behave as it should; but apparently it did not like moving into town with me. While I’ve had it here, it has only grudgingly agreed to adjust to the summer/winter time changes, and each time has caused me more bother than all the other clocks together… This time, neither a fresh battery nor the trick of moving it into another room to pick up the signal was any help. It had clearly decided that if it’s any time at all, it’s time to retire...

As I still kept glancing at the empty wall space (in my study) where It Was Not, today I resolutely went out and bought More Time:

 

This one I’ll have to reset manually, but that will be no doubt be quicker than spending days of frustration on coaxing the old clock into picking up its signal!

Booking Through Thursday: Spring Forward

Question  from Deb: Clocks change this weekend here in the US, which means one less hour to read … does anybody else begrudge that hour like I do? Wish the Powers That Be would just pick a time-frame and stick to it instead of inflicting clock-driven jet lag on an innocent public twice a year?

Here in Sweden, daylight saving time or ‘summer time’ does not start until the last weekend in March; which this year mercifully means not until the very last day of the month. I agree with Deb – I never saw the point myself. My body clock never seems to fully adjust and I always welcome ‘normal’ time back in the late autumn.

A clock in Borås museum.

I’ll add a clock-related question of my own:
When you think of clocks, what books (if any…) come to mind for you?
Here are three that popped up in my head:

The Borrowers by Mary Norton:

Borrowers, in case you don't know, are a little people who live under the floor or behind the walls in big people's houses, preferably close to the kitchen or dining room, because they live on what the human beans leave lying around. When the story begins, there is just one family of Borrowers left in a big old house - 14 year old Arrietty with her parents Pod and Homily; with surname Clock, because the entrance to their home is behind a clock in the hall. The greatest fear of a Borrower is to "be seen" by a human bean. One day, this happens to Arrietty… (from my review 2009)

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton:
It wasn’t actually the layers of time in this story that made me think of it now, but an image of another clock in a hall that popped up in my mind, triggered by thinking about the one in The Borrowers…  Funny, isn’t it, how you can have images in your mind of a house just described in a book even though there were no illustrations. I think in both books there was a man who came once a week to wind the clock!

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom:

A sort of modern fable, connecting the fates of two very different people in our own time with that of the first man ever in human history to start measuring time. It also involves the myths of Father Time, and the Tower of Babel.
(from my review in October 2012)