Time Change

It’s funny/weird how things change. This is probably the first year in my entire life that I’ve not enjoyed the shorter days – which I know are not related to the time change. When Chad was young, the shorter days meant he was in the house earlier and bedtime was a lot easier when it was dark already. Ten or so years ago, the shorter days meant we stopped doing outside things, if Vince was working in the shop, he was back in the house earlier, we’d take showers earlier and were sometimes ready for bed before 10 p.m. In Texas, the shorter days meant we were out of the garden, and back inside the house earlier. It meant the chickens were locked up for the night earlier. We would often have our showers by 7:30 and Vince would be watching TV and I’d be knitting til after 10 when we went to bed. Sometimes in the summer, we’d be just coming in from the outside chores at 8:30 or even closer to 9 p.m.

This year . . I’m in MO and when it gets dark at 5:00, that seems to make for a long, somewhat lonely evening. I am starting to understand why so many people don’t like the shorter days.

But . . the time change part of this post. I had made a grocery order and scheduled it to be picked up between 7 and 8 a.m. today. Then I realized . . the time change. For a few weeks, in my head . . 7 – 8 a.m. is really going to be 6 – 7 a.m.

It was funny because all last night I was thinking it was going to be dark as I was driving to Walmart, not remembering it was going to be light earlier. Then I talked to Vince. He told me last night he was going to try to sleep later this morning and he said he woke up at 6. He said “At least I got an extra hour of sleep!” Huh? I said “No, you lost an hour.” Nope . . he googled it and you gain an hour in the spring and lose an hour in the fall. I said “Fall back; Spring forward!” Yes . . that’s why he got an extra hour of sleep.

I said “Vince! You went to bed at midnight and, if not for the time change, you would have gotten up at 7 but with the time change, you got up at 6.” Ohh, he did lose an hour (like the rest of us!) . . now that he knows that, he’s tired where he was feeling great because he got an extra hour of sleep! 🙂

So, I did get my groceries and then I pulled over in the parking lot, looked up on my phone how to reset the tire pressure light and the maintenance required light. I’ve been driving around with both of those on for at least two weeks. To turn the maintenance required light off, you turn the ignition to “on” (NOT like the motor is actually on). Hold down the odometer button til it goes through all the options and gets back to the odometer reading. Turn the key off. Then push down the odometer button, turn the key to “on” again and wait for the maintenance required button to flash. For the tire pressure light, there’s a button way down under the steering wheel. Hold that button, turn the key to “on”. Hold it til the light goes off. Let go of everything. Hold the button again, turn the key “on” and wait for the tire pressure light to flash three times and then go off.

For someone who puts as few miles on a car as I do, I can have to do all that once a year so I’ve never done it enough or often enough to remember how to do it. In 13-1/2 years of driving that car, I’ve had to google it every time. The owner’s manual doesn’t even mention turning off the tire pressure light and the maintenance light instructions makes no sense to me. Judging by how many times I see the questions asked on Google when I’m looking for an answer, I’m not the only one who can’t figure it out.