I’m going through the change. Sweet Ol’ Duane became cranky. So, watch out. No joking around.
I awoke at 4 a.m. for bathroom call. Then my cellphone, which I check as first duty of the day, tells me it is 5 a.m. Before I start, I’m an hour behind.
Yep, in my busy hectic life I failed to spring forward to CDT before bed Saturday.
I hate when my smartphone out smarts me. Dang technology!
Then the first news on my Internet tells me the Washington Post story: “Springing forward to daylight saving time is obsolete, confusing and unhealthy.”
That’s not fake news; I’ve known it a long time. When the government messes with circadian rhythm everyone around me goes crazy. Now, it happens to me.
Pastors across the country want congregants to get to church on time. But, disruptions lasts longer than the first Sunday. The first week at work will be messed up. It’s easy to move clock hands ahead. But, internal clocks don’t change automatically like a smartphone.
Mess with sleeping time, you’ll get trouble.
I know cows and hogs won’t like messed up feeding times. Farming operates on natural turning of the globe and arriving daylight.
Wait. There’s more. I had to change passcodes on my devices. If I don’t our national security will be destroyed. Learning new combinations of letters, lower and upper case, plus numbers and a symbol or two seems beyond skills of my fingers. Entering my code this morning, I retyped it twice. Change takes too much of an old man set in his ways. Wait for more. I just went in for a six-month check of my failing heart. Old news, it slipped another ejection fraction or so.
My doctors come forth with a new treatment. The med I’d gotten used to this last year will be replaced with a new more powerful cure. To make a transition, I must record more of vital signs, before and after taking my morning and evening pills. This pill comes free in a 30-day trial to see if med and my heart mesh. So, I track blood pressure, weight, temperature and how I feel.
Then I read in the morning MedNet news another headline: “Why are so many new blood pressure meds being recalled?” Whoa. Wait! What?
Then I remember that Saturday I got a letter from the maker of my eight-year-old car. It’s recalled for airbag replacement. If I crash, my airbag can kill me. Now, they tell me! Seems like I read this years ago. But, since I’d not heard anything about my car, I felt I must be safe. Oh well, what’s one more change?
There’s more. I am a terrific fan of winter meetings. Always lots of news stories to report from these. Last week we had the important updating of regional MU livestock specialists with new research. Most startling was the heavy death loss of cows eating high-nitrate hay. More stories to write.
Then, I learn a downside of bringing people together in winter. Too many people crowded into a small room can be dangerous. Some came to hack and cough through two intense days together.
A day after the meeting, mid-writing, I started hacking and coughing as never before. A common cold, I thought. I recalled the old saying about treating colds: “If you do nothing, it wears out in a week. If you seek medical help, it goes away in seven days.” I waited.
After eight days with fluids flowing freely, I went to the doctor, I found this wasn’t common cold. It’s a viral infection that lingers with intense cough. Now I have a new antibiotic and old decongestants. Those not recalled yet.
All of these changes pile on my stooped shoulders. Can I do what I do, write, without spreading my virus? I hope it doesn’t kill my smarty phone.
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