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Saturday, March 14, 2009

Daylight Saving - We Got Our Hour Back

Winter is not over, but we can at least pretend. Daylight saving has crept earlier and earlier it seems, and this year officially fell on March 8. I'm personally not a fan of the event. Why bother? - Ya know?

No matter - it happens, and we oblige.

March 9 Monday found us on an afternoon ride in celebration. Vince and I sped around the San Pablo reservoir - me sporting a new red walled gift tire, that Vince had conceded to reduce the risk of a repeat of our last double flat misadventure. Front tire is now all black with a yellow "Continental" logo on the side, and the rear is black with a bright red sidewall. It doesn't even come close to looking like it was meant to be that way. It looks like what it is. I don't care. I'm telling people that it's more aerodynamic that way.



Since that afternoon I have managed a few other solo rides, including a couple of trips to the top of our local 3800 foot hill - slipping beneath the radar of my new GPS enabled Treo Pro cell phone, and exchanging my bluetooth head leash for a helmet.

By the way, did I mention that I bought a new phone? The other was in active mutiny and the rebellion had to be suppressed before it spread to my other digital vessels.

While on the topic; I love my gadgets. I hate them too. I suspect I'm normal. I've owned a Palm Treo since when the 650 was new. That's at least 3 years, maybe 4. I've had more headsets than I can remember. GPS, laptop, external drives, stereo bluetooth headset, voice recorder, and a multi function pen that produces an ink pen with one twist and a stylus for the touch screen with the other and laser pointer at the top next to a blue LED flashlight. Carried the fancy pen for 1 week.

These things do not bring me joy. Much to the contrary. Most of them are fortunate to have avoided becoming projectiles during failed paring and synchronizing events. Among the worst, is when my computer and phone don't both convert to daylight saving correctly. All of my meetings become exactly 1 hour off. The computer says one thing, and the phone, another. I typically realize this halfway through a bad Monday, resulting from waking up to my phone alarm - exactly one hour late. I do not need these conveniences.

And then I think how simple a concept is the bicycle. But wait - Electric Dura Ace? Oh no.

Here we are full circle. Back to daylight saving. The more I ponder this, the more I think this may be a good issue for a sort of Civil Disobedience along the lines of a Critical Mass. If we all just said forget it, then we would all be right, and the only ones off would be the government. And that wouldn't be new.