Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Ah, the joys of living in a wonderful province such as Alberta. After yesterday's 17-degree highs, today was back down to the negatives again. In fact, it was so bad in Calgary this morning that the basketball team that was going to come here and beat the crap out of Prairie's team couldn't make it. What a place.

Speaking of Calgary, we took our second trip in four days down to the big city this afternoon/evening to pick up my sister for a few days of visiting, and to hang out with my cousins. Good times were had by most. It's always fun for me, and I might have mentioned this before, to see how relationships change as you get older. This particular set of cousins--one of whom is likely reading this right now--always lived close to us when we were growing up, and we were all very close as young kids, but then as we moved into teenage-dom, we grew apart due to different interests and social circles. Now, when we've all grown up a little bit, it's fun to see how those differences really just fade away and we all recognize the familial bond that we share. It's quite a lot of fun, really. And I'm not just saying this because Melissa made a delicious meal that I enjoyed tremendously.

It's also fun to have my sister here, and not just because she's another human being to interact with. We're getting her all pumped up about how much fun the next few days are going to be, but we can't seem to convince her that it's true. Oh well; if nothing else, by the end of the week we'll have earned her sympathy having to live in such a place as this. Either way, we win, I figure. Tomorrow we have a tour of the town planned (which should take all of 20 minutes), and then she's going to come to class with me in the afternoon. Good times.

You know, and I'm sorry that this transition is so jarring, but there's just no way to make it less so, whenever we switch the clocks backwards or forwards, for some reason it always takes me quite a bit of time to get used to it. It's not the time change that gets me, it's the light. For example, today when we were at Melissa and Dan's, it was still light out at 7:15. That's just bizarre to me. I can't keep track of all this.

It got me thinking, why do we even bother with Daylight Saving Time, anyway? By the way, please, please, please, notice that it's "Saving" not "Savings" (and it's "Interac" not "Interact"). Yes, I'm anal. Too bad for you.

Anyway, this year, we went to DST three weeks earlier than usual, and we're going to end it later. It's all in an effort to save energy, apparently, but it also means that it's actually "standard" time for less than half of the year. So I guess it's not so standard, is it? But here's my question: does it really matter if we set our clocks forward and backward? Will the world come to a grinding halt if we cease to spring forward and fall back? What is the big deal, truly?

But, you may ask, is there precedent for the bold move you're considering? We can't simply abandon standard time and daylight saving time, can we? Let me tell you something: Saskatchewan doesn't have daylight saving time, or at least they didn't the last time I checked. And you know what I say, "If Saskatchewan can do it, so can I." Seriously, it's my motto. I'm considering having T-shirts printed.

The long and the short of it is that I'm just puzzled as to why we bother with the time change stuff. It doesn't seem to make a huge difference in my life, and you know, I'd be happy not having to reset every single stupid clock in the fargin' house twice a year. Just saying.

Glad I got that off my chest. It's been bothering me, if you couldn't tell. And with that, I will conclude tonight's collection of mumbo-jumbo. Tomorrow (actually, today, since this is Wednesday's posting) I have my long-awaited class presentation, so I'll be sure to give you a run-down. Also, I haven't had the chance to watch 24 yet, so no commentary tonight. In fact, after reading through what I've done the past two weeks, I'm just not happy with it, so I'll probably just make a couple of observations and leave it at that.

Anyway, thanks again for coming by, and I'll see you tomorrow.