That time of year, revisited

Letterman was on. I was flipping between him and Charlie Rose while doing some late night programming. The little time in the corner of the laptop screen was 12:29 am. Aha! I remembered the significance of the half hour! And what a luxury to have all of this time to prepare for the top of the hour...and correct my prior car clock reset attempt. I opened the hood and disconnected the battery cable and did the camera thing and went back inside.

I watched for the laptop clock to read 12:59:30 and then dashed out into the drizzle and cold wind, counting "29, 28, 27...".

I'm always a little tense messing with a battery cable. I steeled myself for the little spark/fizz sound that would happen when I connected the cable on "0". What I hadn't anticipated was the bright light that came on, right next to my face. That hood lamp. Hadn't noticed that in my daytime clock resets.

Two more days of clock confusion left till Daylight Savings Time.

That time of year but not that hour

For the last week, my car clock has confused me; I have put up with it being off by an hour and have been looking forward to this weekend when Daylight Savings Time would officially happen and my car clock time would end up being on time.

Mom and I were out on the road and she asked, "Which direction are we supposed to change the clock?" (with an upward tone that suggests "Are you sure?") I started into my confident explanation and then halted as I did the math in my head again while processing her saying, "spring forward fall back." Oh man... I had changed the time an hour in the wrong direction.

She started laughing and covered her nose and mouth with her hands as if to hide her delighted laughter from me. I laughed and shook my head. Note to self: watch for 12:50 pm or 12:50 am and try this again.

That time of year

I am ahead of schedule this time.

For me to photograph the actual time-changing event, several conditions must be met simultaneously:

• I am near my car with a wrench.


• I have my camera and tripod.


• The time is right:




• I remember that I need to deal with the car clock.


• It is a convenient time for me to mess with the car.


• I remember this before the time I need to deal with the car clock.
  
• I remember this just before the time. Otherwise, I will go back to my business and forget that I wanted to deal with the car, and I will have to wait for the next time all of these conditions are met.


• I have enough time to get to my car, pop the hood, disconnect the battery cable, attach my camera to the tripod, set up the timer on the camera, compose and take the shot... and then connect the battery at the top of the hour.

Sure, it would make a lot more sense for me to just add an Event to my computer calendar. I could eliminate the most difficult part of my car clock ritual. But, if you understand the oddity that is my car clock ritual, you know that that would be a sort of conflict in principle.

On this day, I was indoors, working on my laptop in a semblence of clothing that was stuck somewhere between right out of bed and ready to go to work. I glanced at the little time at the bottom right corner. 10:55. "10:55..." I thought. Why did that seem familiar?

Last week, thoughts of Halloween reminded me that we were approaching the time when evening would abruptly thrust itself into the daylight I so prefer. Oh yeah, the opportunity to change my car clock time for another blog post. I remembered that I had had considerable trouble getting the time right last Spring. So, I thought for a while about what time I would need to pay attention to clocks in this particular season: 11. I wasn't thinking about my car clock at all until the 10:55 on my computer screen brought back that faint memory from last week.

"10:55!" My mind now raced through details of what I would have to accomplish in 5 minutes. My car was inconveniently outdoors. I slipped into presentable clothing and shoes while getting my camera out of its pouch and attaching it to the tripod and extending the legs on the tripod, while I made my way out to the car and popped the hood and glanced to see no toolbox in the car which meant I needed a wrench from the garage. Propped up the hood, loosened the bolt, disconnected the battery cable, ran to the lawn where I'd left the tripod, switched to camera timer mode and got into position for a couple of shots and then reconnected the cable.

I slowed down, slipped into the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition to see the fruit of my labors, the only time the clock could show at that instant: 12:00. Mission accomplished. Okay, my clock will be off by one hour for a week, but that's cool.