I got an extra hour of sleep, my daughter’s in town and it’s my birthday. I’m 42, which means I’m an answer in search of a question.
7.
General Stuck
Don’t forget about your clocks.
Oh, I don’t touch em. In 6 months just have to change them back, so for 6 months I just deduct an hour, and the other 6 months, everything adds back up. This is NM, land of manana anyways, so what seems abnormal, really isn’t. It’s all in your head.
The time stamp on the main entry is showing as being about 30 minutes before I type this and I am in the same time zone as Cole, although everyone elses post appear fine.
Well out to lay in the snow and change the oil in my car and rotate the tires!!
10.
cathyx
I adjust my external clocks, but I can’t adjust my internal clock. So from now until the next time adjustment, I get up too early and fall asleep too early every day, no matter how hard I try not to. I hate fall.
@cathyx:
I have the same reax for a few weeks at both of the time changes. I have proposed before that they just split the difference and add/subtract 30 minutes from each side and call it even.
12.
R-Jud
@cathyx: I have this problem by proxy– we changed our clocks last week, and the toddler has been awake at 5 and asleep at 6 every day since then.
13.
cathyx
@arguingwithsignposts:
I don’t have any problem with the spring one, probably because I never adjust to the fall one. This “problem” has only become a problem since I hit my mid forties. Another item to add to the list of what sucks about getting old.
14.
gene108
I love this weekend. I get an extra hour. The joy! The pleasure of having one more hour to savor on a Sunday morning!
The biggest reward of all is having an extra hour to devote to writing a term paper for a grad class I’m taking!!!
God, I loved this weekend when I was in college before because of the extra hour just helped me get so much more done (I don’t know why). And it still does 14 years later!!! ***Emoticons showing joy inserted here***
15.
Phyllis
@cathyx: For me, it’s the Spring one that messes me up. The time now feels right, for lack of a better way to describe it.
16.
debit
Friday night one of the cats puked up a hairball on the brand new rug. Last night one of them barfed on my brand new running shoes. Next up will be the new coffee table for the trifecta.
17.
cathyx
@Phyllis:
That’s how I feel about the spring time change. That one feels right to me, and I have to endure the next 5 months until I feel right again. Did I mention that the fall sucks?
I hate this day – the sun doesn’t make it up over the treetops now with another 6 weeks of getting lower before it turns again, and it will be gloomy by 3:00. The color is all gone. It’s amazing how November is completely different than October, and I hate that Christmas shit is starting to fill aisles. I’ve really come to hate November. Ugh.
“There doesn’t seem to be anybody in the White House who’s got any idea what it’s like to lie awake at night worried about money and worried about things slipping away,” said retiring Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D). “They’re all intellectually smart. They’ve got their numbers. But they don’t feel any of it, and I think people sense that.”
Yea, because the last time a Democrat in the White House could “feel your pain” the press and the GOP rolled over and gave him HCR and anything else he wanted. Oh, and the Blue Dogs would have fought harder for a much bigger stimulus bill if only Obama would have …
Time for a nice long bike ride this morning in 38F weather (no rain, though!). After reading Tumulty and Balz at WaPo it will take a good 40 miles to work out my frustration at the whining Dems. Have a good’un.
21.
General Stuck
had the strangest dream last night. Dreamt of being stranded on one of the Florida Keys with a Hurricane about to hit, at a motel will a bunch of nutty people, doing nutty stuff during the storm. There were no signs, but can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t The Balloon Juice Inn.
22.
harlana
@debit: Somehow I always knew not to leave shoes I cared about on the floor for the same exact reason – and inv ariably these things always happen in the morning while you’re just innocently trying to make your way to the coffee machine
Rick Perlstein, historian and author, nails it . In particular:
“When one side breaks the social contract, and the other side makes a virtue of never calling them out on it, the liar always wins. When it becomes “uncivil” to call out liars, lying becomes free.
“And dammit, the essence of Obamaism as an ideology is that it is Uncivil to Call Out Liars.”
In the 2008 primaries I was really undecided between Obama and Hillary. My state went for Hillary big time, I knew they would, so it’s not like my vote mattered anyway. My concern about Obama was that he wouldn’t stand up to the Republican lie machine, would try to be the visionary statesman not the hard-nosed political fighter we needed to get anything done. I knew Hillary was a fighter; my concern was that the right wing was just too geared up for her, too eager to see her win: that meant we’d have another four years of insane Clinton-era crazy assed made up bullshit.
Well guess what. Obama hasn’t stood up to the lie machine and we still got the crazy assed right wing smears. Soc1alism? Death panels? F3MA camps? A $200 million/day trip to India accompanied by 34 warships?
@General Stuck:
Oh, that was you! You did look slightly confused. :)
25.
debit
@harlana: The only danger my shoes had previously ever been in was aggressive snuggling from Luther. I don’t know who has the hairball problem (I suspect Max) but at least he’s not leaving it on the floor right by my bed for me to step in upon waking.
I have learned not to do it until Sunday morning, and to discuss the subject with my damn wife. Otherwise, between devices which do it for themselves and my wife doing it without telling me, every stupid clock gets reset about eight times.
28.
PurpleGirl
Time Warner Cable is very efficient in sending out the signal that resets the cable box… my primary clock is “on time”. My computer clock sets itself, as it were. My next important clock is “on time”. My internal clock seems better adjusted to this time routine, so I feel fine. I’ll manually reset the rest of the clocks in the house later today.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
I woke up at five, which is normally six and cannot fall back sleep. Whine.
31.
debit
@Bill H.: Heh. My son used to do that. I think it was because of my eventual meltdown at not knowing what time it was.
Like other people posted above, now the time feels “right” to me. Spring always messes me up badly because my internal clock insists it all horribly wrong.
32.
Amir_Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus: Happy birthday. Be glad you don’t have to share a birthday with David Hasselhoff, like I do.
We in the tropics know nothing of this “daylight savings time”. What is it supposed to do, and does it really work?
Saw Megamind in 3D today. Way better than Iron Man 2 — not least because its main character isn’t a self-satisfied ass. Also not as derivative of The Incredibles as its detractors say. Plus, film critics should remember that the pop-culture references are a feature, not a bug, of the Dreamworks Animation house style.
Next big movie for me is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Now that the post-production 3D has been cancelled for DH1, I hope Warner Bros. cancels it for DH2 as well.
33.
frosty
@General Stuck: It wasn’t Key Largo, by any chance, was it? And did any of the people look like Edward G. Robinson?
There doesn’t seem to be anybody in the White House who’s got any idea what it’s like to lie awake at night worried about money and worried about things slipping away,” said retiring Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D).
Yes that would be my governor, who threw hundreds of thousands of people off of TennCare, Tennessee’s state health insurance program. I wonder when he did that if he was laying awake at night wondering how he was going to pay for his family’s healthcare, prescription drugs, etc. I’m thinking …. not.
35.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Grand Panjandrum:
I heard Bredesen on NPR a few weeks back. The problem with health care reform, you see, was that Obama didn’t try to find a bipartisan solution. Bredesen has lot of experience with reaching across the aisle, and finding common ground, and saddle breaking unicorns and wearing his own ass as a hat.
36.
harlana
@debit: There’s nothing like waking up in the middle of the night to the preliminary hurling sounds and wondering exactly where it landed and if you will step in it on the way to the bathroom later; what’s even better is when you sleep through it all and wake up with one on your bed, that’s always a nice surprise and great way to start one’s day!
37.
gbear
Back to daylight wastings time.
For the next four months the sun will have set by the time I get home from work. ugh.
38.
joe from Lowell
Or Poland.
39.
JPL
So is anyone watching the morning talk shows?
40.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir_Khalid: Not mine. Mine is early August. Today, it is Brian S (formerly Incertus). Thank you for the thought though.
Ah, clock routines. My computer and the cable box reset themselves automatically. (And I was impressed last night to see that the Cox on-screen guide correctly showed 1:00-1:30-1:00, demarcated by different-colored headings. In previous years they have not planned well and I have occasionally had a recording get hosed. But I digress.)
I woke up spontaneously before 6:00 (EST) and spent some time changing other clocks and watches: stove, microwave, two digital watches (one without a strap that I use as an alarm clock by the bed), my trusty old Timex analog watch (which is showing signs of old age—the Indiglo backlight no longer works, and it seems to be running slower and slower). I also have an “atomic” clock on the nightstand by the bed, which I use for checking the time in bed—it has a nice backlight and is easier to manhandle in the dark than the small watch with no strap. I pressed the button on the back for it to refresh itself and put it on the windowsill so it could get a radio signal. It picked one up and reset itself within a few minutes. Cool. Other times it has taken so long that I have gotten frustrated and reset it manually, which sort of defeats the purpose of having an atomic clock. LQTM.* The Droid reset its clock automatically, as expected. Steep systems are go!
All that being said, I have absolutely nothing planned today. But I do have a tremendous feeling of accomplishment.
* LQTM = laughing quietly to myself. Not quite an LOL.
ETA: The time change always reminds me that I have two or three watches sitting in my sock drawer with dead batteries. I like them and should get the batteries changed. I always say that, too.
42.
South of I-10
@Amir_Khalid: LIttle South is dying to see Megamind. They have been advertising the hell out of it on every kid channel for a month.
We were up early, went to our local diner and had some breakfast, back home and it is only 8:45. Now, what to do with the rest of the day?
43.
debit
@harlana: I once got into bed, not having made it that morning, and rolled right onto one, all cold and slimy and auuuuuuuugh. And yet I still have cats.
44.
Amir_Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus: Whoops. I think I hit reply for the wrong comment.
@Steeplejack: Before bed last night, I wandered the apartment resetting microwave, alarm clock, clock in the office, and several watches. Cable, computers, and iPhones set themselves. The next time I drive someplace, probably Monday or Tuesday, I will reset the clock in the Saab. I woke up an hour early though. Grrr.
49.
Corner Stone
@South of I-10: We just bought the MegaMind video game for Wii yesterday. My 6 yr old has already beaten the entire Story Mode. Haven’t seen the movie but I would recommend not buying the video game.
And as others detail their issues with clocks I’m a little amused. I have two clocks in the entire house, one is the cable box that resets auto, and the other the microwave which is manual.
Somehow I always knew not to leave shoes I cared about on the floor for the same exact reason [cat barf].
I was raised in eastern Oklahoma where insects flourished, along with snakes and other critters, including scorpions. I learned to inspect shoes and shake them out before applying to feet. That’s probably not necessary now but I never saw any reason to break that habit.
51.
HRA
I have a question. Last week I received a letter with an added page from my health insurance provider stating the doubling of copay for services in 2011.
Any thoughts on why this is happening?
To be clear, I do agree everyone should be able to get healthcare.
52.
JPL
@harlana: I hadn’t clicked to the link. My comment was in jest but I do hope that Christiane Amanpour has the courage to ask some tough questions. The problem is not necessarily the questions, it’s the lack of answers and lack of follow-up.
53.
shoutingattherain
Thanks for the reminder, John, but we had our clocks cleaned middle part of last week.
I forgot to disclose that I have a cheapy-cheap Westclox analog clock on the desk by the computer. I keep it just for its pleasant little tick. (There’s probably an app for that.)
58.
Corner Stone
@Southern Beale: I can’t tell by your comment, do you think Perlstein’s column is concern trolling?
I’ve got 3 clocks that have automatic time adjusters built in them. Unfortunately they were bought before the announcement of the shift in dates of when the clocks will be reset. So now, instead of never having to adjust them, I have to adjust them 4 times a year.
The Constitution
a noble piece of paper
with free society
struggled but they died in vain
and now democracy is ragtime on the corner
hoping for some rain
looks like it’s hoping
hoping for some rain
68.
Mike in NC
Don’t forget about your clocks.
Reset to 1984?
69.
frosty
@Steeplejack: “My soul’s been psychedelicized.” Thanks for that, great tune.
Those two musical genres were the big split when I was in high school. You were either tuned in to Motown and Memphis or you listened to everything that came out of the Haight.
You guys are pulling me back from the edge with the time songs. I was spiraling down after going back to “Winter in America” to get the lyrics.
75.
burnspbesq
Sartre was wrong.
Hell isn’t other people.
Hell is watching the progress indicator when you are downloading two complete Wagner operas. At the same time you are watching the progress indicator on a 1.5Tb Time Machine backup.
@burnspbesq: So you not only have a time machine, but also the ability to create a backup copy? You’ve been holding out on us.
77.
HRA
This is an open thread -right?
I decided to ask a question about health insurance. Specifically what I had received in the mail from my own provider.
What did I want to know? Maybe someone else could say -yes, I got that as well. Maybe the answer is complicated?
All I know is there was a time when I really felt irritated by having to pay through my own policy for emergency room care for those who used it. It wasn’t those who had no other choice. It was those who dropped their healthcare. An example was an in-law relative who was in the insurance business that dropped his policy in order not to have his children covered from 2 divorces. No respect for him at all.
78.
Christin
Ugh.
So now it gets dark at five in the peee emm.
When I leave work I will drive in the dark.
Not dusk. The dark. Black dark.
This past May, on a hot spring day, I was leaving work at seven in the pee emm.
Windows down. Could smell green grass that was just cut.
Birds were chirping like mad.
People were in a good mood.
People were sitting outside, and walking outside and playing outside.
And I heard other people’s music and radios and tv’s because windows were open.
And I got in the car and drove down the road a little to fast because I felt so good.
And the sky was still blue and the sun was still raining down brilliant light.
And it was seven in the pee emm.
And when I got home I still had hours of sunlight.
So tomorrow it will be cold. And pitch black. And quiet.
When I leave work.
God just get me through another dark Winter.
In a few more months Spring is coming.
79.
South of I-10
Here ya go, with orginal 80’s video and everything!
Last week I received a letter with an added page from my health insurance provider stating the doubling of copay for services in 2011.
__
Any thoughts on why this is happening?
Um, insurance companies jacking up their charges in advance of HCR measures taking effect?
Wait, what? Oh, yeah, insurance companies have been jacking up their charges anyway, regardless of HCR.
I decided to ask a question about health insurance. Specifically what I had received in the mail from my own provider. What did I want to know? Maybe someone else could say, yes, I got that as well. Maybe the answer is complicated?
I don’t know whether the answer is complicated, because your question is kind of vague. Yeah, it sucks that your copay is going up. We have issues with health insurance in this country, as has been discussed ad infinitum on this blog and elsewhere. Bad stuff happening all over.
Sorry you apparently didn’t get the timely answer you were looking for.
“Um, insurance companies jacking up their charges in advance of HCR measures taking effect?
Wait, what? Oh, yeah, insurance companies have been jacking up their charges anyway, regardless of HCR.”
Sure that jack up happened a few weeks back on my payment. The copay doubling is in addition to the jack up.
“I don’t know whether the answer is complicated, because your question is kind of vague. Yeah, it sucks that your copay is going up. We have issues with health insurance in this country, as has been discussed ad infinitum on this blog and elsewhere. Bad stuff happening all over.
Sorry you apparently didn’t get the timely answer you were looking for.”
Unfortunately, I am not able to respond at work on a timely basis to any of the times I have seen it on this blog and by the time I get home 45 minutes to an hour + later the thread is done.
Thanks for replying.
88.
Anne Laurie
@Brian S (formerly Incertus): Happy birthday, fellow Scorpio! If we are true to the spirit of Douglas Adams, are we not all of us answers without questions?
Somehow I always knew not to leave shoes I cared about on the floor for the same exact reason
Hairballs are nothing. Try living with a high-dominance rescue dog who spent her formative years tied out in a barren yard, but bring the ‘pet odor removers’ when you do. Sometimes I ask myself why we were naive enough to adopt such a “challenging” (literally) dog, and then I remember — she was only supposed to stay with us for a week or two while waiting for a better placement. Then her former, registered foster family moved to Tennessee, the regional breed rescue coordinator changed her cell number, and the national coordinator stopped responding to my emails…
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John Cole
Test
Xboxershorts
Too late. Woke up at 4, getting ready for work at 6, turned out to be 3. Yuck
Linda Featheringill
@John Cole:
Speaking of clocks. Ahem.
ETA:
Hey! You fixed it!
Guster
For some reason, I expected ‘Rock out with your clock out.’
StonyPillow
Fall back to 1870.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
I got an extra hour of sleep, my daughter’s in town and it’s my birthday. I’m 42, which means I’m an answer in search of a question.
General Stuck
Oh, I don’t touch em. In 6 months just have to change them back, so for 6 months I just deduct an hour, and the other 6 months, everything adds back up. This is NM, land of manana anyways, so what seems abnormal, really isn’t. It’s all in your head.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brian S (formerly Incertus): Happy birthday.
Napoleon
The time stamp on the main entry is showing as being about 30 minutes before I type this and I am in the same time zone as Cole, although everyone elses post appear fine.
Well out to lay in the snow and change the oil in my car and rotate the tires!!
cathyx
I adjust my external clocks, but I can’t adjust my internal clock. So from now until the next time adjustment, I get up too early and fall asleep too early every day, no matter how hard I try not to. I hate fall.
arguingwithsignposts
@cathyx:
I have the same reax for a few weeks at both of the time changes. I have proposed before that they just split the difference and add/subtract 30 minutes from each side and call it even.
R-Jud
@cathyx: I have this problem by proxy– we changed our clocks last week, and the toddler has been awake at 5 and asleep at 6 every day since then.
cathyx
@arguingwithsignposts:
I don’t have any problem with the spring one, probably because I never adjust to the fall one. This “problem” has only become a problem since I hit my mid forties. Another item to add to the list of what sucks about getting old.
gene108
I love this weekend. I get an extra hour. The joy! The pleasure of having one more hour to savor on a Sunday morning!
The biggest reward of all is having an extra hour to devote to writing a term paper for a grad class I’m taking!!!
God, I loved this weekend when I was in college before because of the extra hour just helped me get so much more done (I don’t know why). And it still does 14 years later!!! ***Emoticons showing joy inserted here***
Phyllis
@cathyx: For me, it’s the Spring one that messes me up. The time now feels right, for lack of a better way to describe it.
debit
Friday night one of the cats puked up a hairball on the brand new rug. Last night one of them barfed on my brand new running shoes. Next up will be the new coffee table for the trifecta.
cathyx
@Phyllis:
That’s how I feel about the spring time change. That one feels right to me, and I have to endure the next 5 months until I feel right again. Did I mention that the fall sucks?
harlana
This ’bout sums it up for me
Cat Lady
I hate this day – the sun doesn’t make it up over the treetops now with another 6 weeks of getting lower before it turns again, and it will be gloomy by 3:00. The color is all gone. It’s amazing how November is completely different than October, and I hate that Christmas shit is starting to fill aisles. I’ve really come to hate November. Ugh.
ETA: @Brian S (formerly Incertus):
Happy Birthday! My father’s birthday was this day too. I miss him. :-<
The Grand Panjandrum
@Brian S (formerly Incertus): Happy Birthday Brian.
The geniuses speak:
Yea, because the last time a Democrat in the White House could “feel your pain” the press and the GOP rolled over and gave him HCR and anything else he wanted. Oh, and the Blue Dogs would have fought harder for a much bigger stimulus bill if only Obama would have …
Time for a nice long bike ride this morning in 38F weather (no rain, though!). After reading Tumulty and Balz at WaPo it will take a good 40 miles to work out my frustration at the whining Dems. Have a good’un.
General Stuck
had the strangest dream last night. Dreamt of being stranded on one of the Florida Keys with a Hurricane about to hit, at a motel will a bunch of nutty people, doing nutty stuff during the storm. There were no signs, but can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t The Balloon Juice Inn.
harlana
@debit: Somehow I always knew not to leave shoes I cared about on the floor for the same exact reason – and inv ariably these things always happen in the morning while you’re just innocently trying to make your way to the coffee machine
Southern Beale
Rick Perlstein, historian and author, nails it . In particular:
“When one side breaks the social contract, and the other side makes a virtue of never calling them out on it, the liar always wins. When it becomes “uncivil” to call out liars, lying becomes free.
“And dammit, the essence of Obamaism as an ideology is that it is Uncivil to Call Out Liars.”
In the 2008 primaries I was really undecided between Obama and Hillary. My state went for Hillary big time, I knew they would, so it’s not like my vote mattered anyway. My concern about Obama was that he wouldn’t stand up to the Republican lie machine, would try to be the visionary statesman not the hard-nosed political fighter we needed to get anything done. I knew Hillary was a fighter; my concern was that the right wing was just too geared up for her, too eager to see her win: that meant we’d have another four years of insane Clinton-era crazy assed made up bullshit.
Well guess what. Obama hasn’t stood up to the lie machine and we still got the crazy assed right wing smears. Soc1alism? Death panels? F3MA camps? A $200 million/day trip to India accompanied by 34 warships?
Hello?
arguingwithsignposts
@General Stuck:
Oh, that was you! You did look slightly confused. :)
debit
@harlana: The only danger my shoes had previously ever been in was aggressive snuggling from Luther. I don’t know who has the hairball problem (I suspect Max) but at least he’s not leaving it on the floor right by my bed for me to step in upon waking.
Southern Beale
Dammit my comment is awaiting moderation and I made sure to spell Soc1alism with the “1”
WTF?
Bill H.
I have learned not to do it until Sunday morning, and to discuss the subject with my damn wife. Otherwise, between devices which do it for themselves and my wife doing it without telling me, every stupid clock gets reset about eight times.
PurpleGirl
Time Warner Cable is very efficient in sending out the signal that resets the cable box… my primary clock is “on time”. My computer clock sets itself, as it were. My next important clock is “on time”. My internal clock seems better adjusted to this time routine, so I feel fine. I’ll manually reset the rest of the clocks in the house later today.
Brian S: Happy Birthday.
Southern Beale
Well dammit I don’t have time to figure out how to get past some stupid anti-trolling filter. Just read Rick Perlstein’s fucking column this morning. That is all.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
I woke up at five, which is normally six and cannot fall back sleep. Whine.
debit
@Bill H.: Heh. My son used to do that. I think it was because of my eventual meltdown at not knowing what time it was.
Like other people posted above, now the time feels “right” to me. Spring always messes me up badly because my internal clock insists it all horribly wrong.
Amir_Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus: Happy birthday. Be glad you don’t have to share a birthday with David Hasselhoff, like I do.
We in the tropics know nothing of this “daylight savings time”. What is it supposed to do, and does it really work?
Saw Megamind in 3D today. Way better than Iron Man 2 — not least because its main character isn’t a self-satisfied ass. Also not as derivative of The Incredibles as its detractors say. Plus, film critics should remember that the pop-culture references are a feature, not a bug, of the Dreamworks Animation house style.
Next big movie for me is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Now that the post-production 3D has been cancelled for DH1, I hope Warner Bros. cancels it for DH2 as well.
frosty
@General Stuck: It wasn’t Key Largo, by any chance, was it? And did any of the people look like Edward G. Robinson?
Southern Beale
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Yes that would be my governor, who threw hundreds of thousands of people off of TennCare, Tennessee’s state health insurance program. I wonder when he did that if he was laying awake at night wondering how he was going to pay for his family’s healthcare, prescription drugs, etc. I’m thinking …. not.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Grand Panjandrum:
I heard Bredesen on NPR a few weeks back. The problem with health care reform, you see, was that Obama didn’t try to find a bipartisan solution. Bredesen has lot of experience with reaching across the aisle, and finding common ground, and saddle breaking unicorns and wearing his own ass as a hat.
harlana
@debit: There’s nothing like waking up in the middle of the night to the preliminary hurling sounds and wondering exactly where it landed and if you will step in it on the way to the bathroom later; what’s even better is when you sleep through it all and wake up with one on your bed, that’s always a nice surprise and great way to start one’s day!
gbear
Back to daylight wastings time.
For the next four months the sun will have set by the time I get home from work. ugh.
joe from Lowell
Or Poland.
JPL
So is anyone watching the morning talk shows?
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir_Khalid: Not mine. Mine is early August. Today, it is Brian S (formerly Incertus). Thank you for the thought though.
Steeplejack
@PurpleGirl:
Ah, clock routines. My computer and the cable box reset themselves automatically. (And I was impressed last night to see that the Cox on-screen guide correctly showed 1:00-1:30-1:00, demarcated by different-colored headings. In previous years they have not planned well and I have occasionally had a recording get hosed. But I digress.)
I woke up spontaneously before 6:00 (EST) and spent some time changing other clocks and watches: stove, microwave, two digital watches (one without a strap that I use as an alarm clock by the bed), my trusty old Timex analog watch (which is showing signs of old age—the Indiglo backlight no longer works, and it seems to be running slower and slower). I also have an “atomic” clock on the nightstand by the bed, which I use for checking the time in bed—it has a nice backlight and is easier to manhandle in the dark than the small watch with no strap. I pressed the button on the back for it to refresh itself and put it on the windowsill so it could get a radio signal. It picked one up and reset itself within a few minutes. Cool. Other times it has taken so long that I have gotten frustrated and reset it manually, which sort of defeats the purpose of having an atomic clock. LQTM.* The Droid reset its clock automatically, as expected. Steep systems are go!
All that being said, I have absolutely nothing planned today. But I do have a tremendous feeling of accomplishment.
* LQTM = laughing quietly to myself. Not quite an LOL.
ETA: The time change always reminds me that I have two or three watches sitting in my sock drawer with dead batteries. I like them and should get the batteries changed. I always say that, too.
South of I-10
@Amir_Khalid: LIttle South is dying to see Megamind. They have been advertising the hell out of it on every kid channel for a month.
We were up early, went to our local diner and had some breakfast, back home and it is only 8:45. Now, what to do with the rest of the day?
debit
@harlana: I once got into bed, not having made it that morning, and rolled right onto one, all cold and slimy and auuuuuuuugh. And yet I still have cats.
Amir_Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus: Whoops. I think I hit reply for the wrong comment.
harlana
@JPL: Cannot stomach, see my post at #18
Linda Featheringill
@Cat Lady:
I miss my mother on her birthday. I understand.
Auld Lang Syne.
General Stuck
Time Won’t Let Me
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Before bed last night, I wandered the apartment resetting microwave, alarm clock, clock in the office, and several watches. Cable, computers, and iPhones set themselves. The next time I drive someplace, probably Monday or Tuesday, I will reset the clock in the Saab. I woke up an hour early though. Grrr.
Corner Stone
@South of I-10: We just bought the MegaMind video game for Wii yesterday. My 6 yr old has already beaten the entire Story Mode. Haven’t seen the movie but I would recommend not buying the video game.
And as others detail their issues with clocks I’m a little amused. I have two clocks in the entire house, one is the cable box that resets auto, and the other the microwave which is manual.
Linda Featheringill
@harlana:
I was raised in eastern Oklahoma where insects flourished, along with snakes and other critters, including scorpions. I learned to inspect shoes and shake them out before applying to feet. That’s probably not necessary now but I never saw any reason to break that habit.
HRA
I have a question. Last week I received a letter with an added page from my health insurance provider stating the doubling of copay for services in 2011.
Any thoughts on why this is happening?
To be clear, I do agree everyone should be able to get healthcare.
JPL
@harlana: I hadn’t clicked to the link. My comment was in jest but I do hope that Christiane Amanpour has the courage to ask some tough questions. The problem is not necessarily the questions, it’s the lack of answers and lack of follow-up.
shoutingattherain
Thanks for the reminder, John, but we had our clocks cleaned middle part of last week.
Steeplejack
@General Stuck:
Good one. I’d look up the Stones’ “Time Is on my Side,” but I’m too lazy, so just hum it in your mind.
. . . Oh, hell, here it is.
Bonus: “Time Has Come Today,” the Chambers Brothers.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@shoutingattherain: Heheheheh I thought that too but didn’t want to post it.
harlana
@Linda Featheringill: yikes!
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
I forgot to disclose that I have a cheapy-cheap Westclox analog clock on the desk by the computer. I keep it just for its pleasant little tick. (There’s probably an app for that.)
Corner Stone
@Southern Beale: I can’t tell by your comment, do you think Perlstein’s column is concern trolling?
cleek
hate setting the clocks back.
now i have to run in the dark, when i get home after work.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Can’t forget this one from Chicago.
cleek
@JPL:
no, never.
cathyx
I’ve got 3 clocks that have automatic time adjusters built in them. Unfortunately they were bought before the announcement of the shift in dates of when the clocks will be reset. So now, instead of never having to adjust them, I have to adjust them 4 times a year.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Heh. Knew it was going to be that one.
South of I-10
@Steeplejack: Ooh I want to play! How about this?
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Would you have preferred this?
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: @Omnes Omnibus: Or this?
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
These “time” songs are good. I just realized that all I’ve been listening to since Election Day is Donny Hathaway’s “The Ghetto” and Gil Scott-Heron’s “Winter in America.” Whoa. Makes you think.
Mike in NC
Reset to 1984?
frosty
@Steeplejack: “My soul’s been psychedelicized.” Thanks for that, great tune.
Those two musical genres were the big split when I was in high school. You were either tuned in to Motown and Memphis or you listened to everything that came out of the Haight.
Cat Lady
@South of I-10:
There’s this obvious one also, too.
Steeplejack
@South of I-10:
Love that song! Here’s a kickety-kick-ass live version (starts at 1:05 after lame intro).
MattR
or
Steeplejack
“Time of the Season,” the Zombies.
Steeplejack
You guys are pulling me back from the edge with the time songs. I was spiraling down after going back to “Winter in America” to get the lyrics.
burnspbesq
Sartre was wrong.
Hell isn’t other people.
Hell is watching the progress indicator when you are downloading two complete Wagner operas. At the same time you are watching the progress indicator on a 1.5Tb Time Machine backup.
MattR
@burnspbesq: So you not only have a time machine, but also the ability to create a backup copy? You’ve been holding out on us.
HRA
This is an open thread -right?
I decided to ask a question about health insurance. Specifically what I had received in the mail from my own provider.
What did I want to know? Maybe someone else could say -yes, I got that as well. Maybe the answer is complicated?
All I know is there was a time when I really felt irritated by having to pay through my own policy for emergency room care for those who used it. It wasn’t those who had no other choice. It was those who dropped their healthcare. An example was an in-law relative who was in the insurance business that dropped his policy in order not to have his children covered from 2 divorces. No respect for him at all.
Christin
Ugh.
So now it gets dark at five in the peee emm.
When I leave work I will drive in the dark.
Not dusk. The dark. Black dark.
This past May, on a hot spring day, I was leaving work at seven in the pee emm.
Windows down. Could smell green grass that was just cut.
Birds were chirping like mad.
People were in a good mood.
People were sitting outside, and walking outside and playing outside.
And I heard other people’s music and radios and tv’s because windows were open.
And I got in the car and drove down the road a little to fast because I felt so good.
And the sky was still blue and the sun was still raining down brilliant light.
And it was seven in the pee emm.
And when I got home I still had hours of sunlight.
So tomorrow it will be cold. And pitch black. And quiet.
When I leave work.
God just get me through another dark Winter.
In a few more months Spring is coming.
South of I-10
Here ya go, with orginal 80’s video and everything!
burnspbesq
@MattR:
None of you can be trusted with a time machine.
Steeplejack
@HRA:
Um, insurance companies jacking up their charges in advance of HCR measures taking effect?
Wait, what? Oh, yeah, insurance companies have been jacking up their charges anyway, regardless of HCR.
I don’t know whether the answer is complicated, because your question is kind of vague. Yeah, it sucks that your copay is going up. We have issues with health insurance in this country, as has been discussed ad infinitum on this blog and elsewhere. Bad stuff happening all over.
Sorry you apparently didn’t get the timely answer you were looking for.
Steeplejack
@burnspbesq:
True dat.
Steeplejack
@South of I-10:
Good one. I had completely forgotten the video for that. Oh, MTV, I remember those golden days when you really were music television.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: It’s a fair cop.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brian S (formerly Incertus)
Happy birthday! Enjoy Deep Thoughts all day :-)
ruemara
@Incertus
Happy B’day!
HRA
@Steeplejack:
“Um, insurance companies jacking up their charges in advance of HCR measures taking effect?
Wait, what? Oh, yeah, insurance companies have been jacking up their charges anyway, regardless of HCR.”
Sure that jack up happened a few weeks back on my payment. The copay doubling is in addition to the jack up.
“I don’t know whether the answer is complicated, because your question is kind of vague. Yeah, it sucks that your copay is going up. We have issues with health insurance in this country, as has been discussed ad infinitum on this blog and elsewhere. Bad stuff happening all over.
Sorry you apparently didn’t get the timely answer you were looking for.”
Unfortunately, I am not able to respond at work on a timely basis to any of the times I have seen it on this blog and by the time I get home 45 minutes to an hour + later the thread is done.
Thanks for replying.
Anne Laurie
@Brian S (formerly Incertus): Happy birthday, fellow Scorpio! If we are true to the spirit of Douglas Adams, are we not all of us answers without questions?
Anne Laurie
@harlana:
__
Hairballs are nothing. Try living with a high-dominance rescue dog who spent her formative years tied out in a barren yard, but bring the ‘pet odor removers’ when you do. Sometimes I ask myself why we were naive enough to adopt such a “challenging” (literally) dog, and then I remember — she was only supposed to stay with us for a week or two while waiting for a better placement. Then her former, registered foster family moved to Tennessee, the regional breed rescue coordinator changed her cell number, and the national coordinator stopped responding to my emails…