Stop the Time Change Madness

Grams is sitting on the sofa with her feet propped up at 8:30 p.m. I subbed for an inclusion teacher today, which means I spent the entire day moving from classroom to classroom. I'm tired tonight and my feet hurt from walking all over the school. But my exhaustion is not from working today. Most of it is because this is the first week of "standard time."

I'm not a big fan of standard time, but I do love daylight saving time. I like it when the sun goes down later in the day. Now that we're back to standard time, it's pitch dark around 6 p.m. and I hate that.

My biggest complaint though is the "time change." Yes, I know it's only and hour, but it throws my entire "clock" into chaos. I can take either time, but my body does not respond well to the change. I wake up way too early for several weeks and I'm hungry at the wrong times. When my stomach thinks it's lunch time, I look at the clock and I still have an hour or more to wait. And, I'm sleepy by 8 o'clock in the evening. But if I give in and go to bed early, it just makes it all a vicious circle, because then I wake up way too early again and it all starts over again.

It also makes me crazy that many clocks never get changed and when they do get changed, it takes weeks or months to get them all synchronized. Does anybody really know what time it is?

In addition, it's not unusual for me to come down with a cold within one or two weeks of the twice-a-year time change. I think the disruption of my sleep pattern causes me to be run down and more susceptible.

If you are interested in the history of daylight saving time or if you would like to see the research data that shows how much energy is saved by DST along with some interesting statistics about lives saved and injuries avoided as a result of DST go to The California Energy Commission web site.

It is true that the concept came from Benjamin Franklin. Both Britain and the United States used DST during World War I and again during World War II.

When Grams was a child in the 1950s and early 1960s, Texas did not observe daylight saving time. My recollection is that it started when I was in junior high school, sometime around 1966 or 1967. Then in 1973 and 1974 Congress put most of the USA on year-round daylight saving time to save energy during the Arab oil embargo. After 1975, most of the US began observing DST from April until October. The start and end dates have been amended a couple of times over the years.

I say it's time to stop the madness! I've never run into one single person who embraces the time change. Many people like one time more than the other. Some prefer daylight saving time and some prefer standard time, but no one likes the process of changing it twice a year. Let's start a grassroots movement to get congress to repeal the law and choose one time or the other. Personally, I like daylight saving time, but I could learn to like standard time if they would just stop changing it.

So, there's my idea. Now, how do we get this done?

I Hate Bra Straps

Grams can't stand it any more. I just have to finally say it. I hate it when women deliberately show their bra straps. I'm not talking about the occasional, stray strap peaking out now and then. I'm talking about blouses, tanks and dresses that are clearly meant to be worn with a strapless or T-back bra, yet women just go ahead and wear their regular bras and let the straps just show. I've noticed that young girls even seem to wear contrasting or matching colors. I hate it!

Grams tries to be tolerant, really I do. If you're just hanging out at the park or maybe even the mall, I'll just look the other way. But, if you're going to church, come on people, show a little respect.

As I've told you before, I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church. I know it's different now, but in my youth we didn't even wear pant suits to church. Dresses were the only acceptable attire for church. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was okay to wear slacks when I started attending the Catholic Church.

The church we attend now is in a very small farming community. Casual attire is very acceptable and we often wear blue jeans to church. But, this morning there was a young woman seated about three rows in front of me who was wearing a blouse that had deep vees cut into the armholes on both sides of the back creating kind of an X-back and baring almost all of the upper part of her back. She had two sets of straps in two different colors showing. I assume what I was seeing was a bra strap and a camisole strap. It was all I could do not to take off my sweater and drape it over her shoulders and back.

Aside from the inappropriateness of the blouse and exposed straps, the weather was cool this morning; cool enough that I had a sweater over my blouse. It is highly unlikely that she was not uncomfortably chilly. But most of all, it was just not proper attire for church. My mother would have described it as "trailer park trash" and I would have been sent to my room to dress properly. To borrow a phrase from Bill Cosby, "Come on people!"

I do want to point out that there is no photo to accompany this post. I resisted the urge to snap a picture with my cell phone for two reasons. One, because it would have been inappropriate behavior for church and, two, because my mother-in-law was sitting right next to me. See, I know how to behave.