title explained

Onward and upward! something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead and move forward.

My e-mail: jjmiller6213@comcast.net

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Time Change

Today's high temperature was: 52
Cloudy and grey
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I am old enough to remember when we didn't have the time change.  We just stayed on Eastern Standard Time all year long.  The seasons changed, as they should, with earlier darkness at night and later darkness in the morning.

My Daddy was a farmer.  He had about 50 Holstein cows.  Dairy cows need to be milked twelve hours apart.  If they aren't milked regularly, every day, they can get mastitis, which is a disease of the udder.  Imagine, if my Daddy milked his cows at 5:00 one night and then the time changed and he had to milk them at clock time of 4:00 the next morning.  Or, in the spring, at 6:00 the next morning.

So for him, and most farmers, the time change in spring and fall meant more work for them and a real change in their schedule.  Starting a few weeks before the time change, Daddy would have to either move back or move up his milking schedule--a few minutes each day.  I remember him ignoring it one year--he NEVER even changed his wrist watch!  Off course, this threw off our schedule for breakfast and supper.  If he had a township board meeting, he had to remember what time it was, according to his wrist watch.

When our State voted on changing from EST to DST, it was voted down.  But--you know how government is--the Governor at the time, put it into effect.  For years all I heard was how the farmers wanted the time change to be able to get more done in the daylight hours at night.  THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!

The time change, at least in this State, was pushed through by the auto workers unions who wanted more daylight hours after they got off 1st shift work.

I remember how difficult it was to get my kids on a different waking and sleeping schedule.  Now--I am going through the same thing with my cats.  Normally, I feed them their night time snack at 9:00 at night.  With the "fall back" time change, they start pestering me at "clock time" 8:00.  I have been trying to ease them later a few minutes each night.

In the spring, they will be pestering me in the morning to get fed an hour earlier then "clock time".

Last night, as I was driving Andrew home, he said, "Look outside.  It's pitch black and it isn't even six o'clock yet!".  

Not good for a grandma who has trouble driving after dark!!!
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I don't feel like doing much of anything lately.  I had my shoes on this afternoon to go to Wal-Mart to get a prescription and to Meijer's to buy Diet Pepsi, which is on sale for $1.00 for 2 liter jug.  Then I remembered my prescription will not be ready until tomorrow morning, so I just took my shoes off and came in here and did some more work on researching self-publishing.

I have no ambition.  Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking about Fred.  It's been over 22 months since he died.  I went for long periods of time when I didn't think of him for days.  Now, it seems, he is all that is my mind.  So--I get distracted--thought I was over that foggy feeling.  I don't even remember going to bed last night.  I don't remember what time I got up this morning.  I hate this feeling!!!  Hated it for the first few months after he died, but knew about it and expected it.  Now?  I shouldn't be having this.

I was in the bathroom this morning and I had the feeling that he was sitting in his recliner in the living room.  I was so tempted to step out into the hall and peek around the corner.  I KNEW he wasn't there.  But it "felt" like he was.  I didn't look.  I got my toothbrush and brushed my teeth.  I went back into the bedroom and got dressed.  I made the bed.  Then, I walked out into the kitchen and I didn't look toward the living room.

I don't know why I am getting these feelings now.  I can feel like he is near--and I know, that cannot be.  If I "feel" he is near, it is something my own mind has conjured up because dead people do not come back with their spirits flitting around us.  Their souls are gone to another place and if that place is Heaven, they couldn't care less what is happening back here.  

6 comments:

  1. Good Morning!
    Ah, the time change.....Ms G was a royal pain last weekend and started walking across our ribs at 3:45 am.....She is still doing it to LM since I came home. She was determined to get us out of bed by 4 am. We shall see if she had adjusted her time clock when I visit again next weekend.
    The fog and the sense of closeness to Fred you've described is similar to what I went through after Dad's death....it does come and go, just as the fog moves in and out here on the Cape. Sometimes it brought comfort, sometimes, restlessness, but all the same it seemed like a time I had to experience and reflect. You and Fred shared a true and beautiful love and of course those feelings are not going to drift away for long. May they bring comfort to you!!

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  2. I think you're wrong about auto workers being the ones who wanted the time change---don't forget that they historically have always ran two and three shifts so the time change didn't help them all get more free daylight time. In fact, it took it away from part of them depending on your shift. My memory of the reason why there was a big push for the time change is that it came from the golf courses, boating and outdoor sports industries and the tourism organizations who all stood to profit from the extra hour of daylight in the evenings. The money makers always get their way.

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  3. I'm at 22 two months also and I've been thinking a lot about Don as well. I think it comes with the fall reminding us of the impeding anniversary and how things change. For me, I'm trying to dwell on the good memories and as quick as possible shove the bad ones---the dying and sickness parts---out the door.

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  5. Well, my first attempt to comment went up in smoke, so I'll try again.

    I think this time of year the additional darkness, makes us all a bit off kilter.

    You know, who can say that our loved ones don't visit us? I mean, none of us really know for SURE what might be possible. At the very least, I think that Fred lives on inside of you, and so you can conjure up that feeling of his presence very easily. Let it comfort you instead of wig you out :)

    I didn't comment yesterday, but your grandson is a neat little guy!

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  6. I'm sure it feels a little strange to you, but I know people who've experienced similar feelings. Such a loss is a tough thing for the brain to accept. We all have our own way of processing it and our own time schedule.

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