Bill's Musings

I’ve always disliked the time change in spring and fall. Of course, in the fall, it’s a bit more palatable because we fall back, thus getting an extra hour of sleep. In this day and age, an hour is precious. But in spring, where we ‘Spring Forward’, and lose that precious hour, it sometimes feels like I’ve lost much more, my sanity amongst the lost items.

Having dealt with autism for the last 18 years, these time changes have wreaked havoc on our family, because Alex and Anne have an internal clock that requires weeks to reset. For years, we’ve collectively suffered through this one hour Spanish I\Inquisition, showing up for activities one hour early, one hour late, or on one memorable occasion, one week late. It took a while to live that one down.

This change has led to sudden sleep. I’d be sitting, minding my own business, when suddenly, I’d wake up, sore neck and covered in slobber, my dogs staring at me in a funny way, as if I’d either been snoring loudly or talking out loud.  This is really embarrassing at church, especially if I was dreaming about something naughty.

2012, however, has taken the proverbial cake. Spring Forward, as it is so lovingly called, can just go to hell.

For Spring Break 2012, we decided to celebrate with a little trip to Las Vegas. We’ve never been, and since Alex was going to college next year, this meant that this is the last year for a while that our vacations will all match. And so we booked. Everything was planned out. The room was booked, the flights also. The drive to Toronto planned in infinite detail, as we are prone to do. All was well. After all, as a family, we’ve travelled extensively, right? What could go wrong?

I introduce to you, ladies and gentlemen, the iPhone. A useful device if I’ve ever seen one. We love our iPhones. We sync to our music, we text each other, we hijack each other’s Facebook. And, as time has passed, these phones have, much like with many people, become out personal clocks. No longer needing to wear a watch, these iPhones can tell you the time anywhere in the world. This is handy when I want to know if it’s 5 o’clock somewhere and I want a drink without feeling guilty.

But reliance in electronic technology can be our downfall. Just look at ‘Terminator’ for proof of that… the rise of the machines. Well, this year, the Rise of the iPhones, coupled with my own stupidity, really took it to us. Allow me to illustrate just what happened:

9:30 am: We leave Sturgeon Falls, leaving the dogs at the kennel. The roads are clear. It’s sunny. Wooohoo!

1:03 pm: having made excellent time, and thanks to our handy-dandy GPS (which, admittedly in the past, has caused me to write about other adventures) we arrive at our hotel safe and sound. We bring our things to our room, have lunch, then hunker down for our flight which takes place tomorrow morning at 8:25 am. Booyaa!!

4:15 pm: I have an epiphany…..why not change our clocks now? We can sync our bodies to the right time now, and wake up refreshed, since we have to get up at 4 am. What a great idea!! This plan, of course, was met with a bit of scepticism, but logic held sway. We all changed the time on our iPhones forward one hour, and gently synced our minds and bodies.

8:00 pm (actually 7 p.m.) we’ve watched a movie, we’re now sufficiently tired enough to sleep. Next stop…..4:15 am!!! Woot Woot!!

4:15 am: my iPhone have woken me up to the peels of bells….I don’t mind however, because I know I’ve had an okay sleep, and all is well! Yeeehaa.

4:25 am: Anne has showered, the coffee is on, and Alex is in the shower. Mackie is still sleeping. Let’s check the scores and the weather on tv. Hmmmm, it would appear they didn’t change the time on the television, because it is still one hour behind. I check the weather network….same thing. Well. Let’s call the front desk and make sure they’ve changed their time.

4:27 am (3:27 am): as I hang up the phone, I realize I have to tell Anne we are up an hour early. Apparently, when we changed the time on our iPhones, it then added another hour overnight, as it is programmed to change automatically to ‘Spring Forward’. Oops.

3:28 a.m.: The Redhead is looking at me with her piercing blue laser-like eyes. It’s hard to hide behind my pillows. We are up way to early. I guess it’ll be a while longer before we go to the airport.

We made it alright to the airport, and the trip went well, despite the double-time change plus jet lag, Technology won this battle!!