Spring Ahead, Fall On Your Face

Any parent with more than a few weeks' experience can tell you that medical crises don't occur at 1:00 on a Tuesday afternoon. No, in fact, even children too young to read a clock are inclined to wait till the household's abed. Bonus points are awarded if the episode coincides with the beginning of Daylight Savings Time.

So I was less than astonished Saturday night when my bedtime preparations (early to try to beat the time change) were interrupted by a fit of barking. In fact, it took mere seconds to recall that we don't even have a dog. Well, of course that's hyperbole: it sounded more like a seal, and I was instantly sure we didn't have one of those.

The daughter had progressed directly from a slight cold to full-on croup (again, not surprisingly, since I had just told my wife I'd looked in and she was sleeping peacefully). This could only mean that it was sauna time -- facilitated by the phone-booth dimensions of our shower. In fact, our entire bathroom could fit inside a lot of the showers you see on HGTV.

Needless to say, the early-to-bed -- which wasn't going to turn out all that early anyway -- was completely by the boards, but at least my pores got a good cleansing.

Our household's Crack Medical Staff determined that the best arrangement would be for the girl to sleep on the floor in our bathroom -- a warm, moist space close at hand -- and further that occasional scheduled check-ins would be necessary throughout the night. Scheduled, as in setting the alarm... and since I am both the keeper and the hearer of the alarm, I would also have scheduled wakeys.

It's not like I ever get much sleep on Time-Change Night anyway. For the "fall-back" event, I always seem to stay up way too late, figuring I'll get it back anyway, and more often than not end up in deficit.

And I've slept with one eye open on Spring-Forward night ever since the fateful events of 2000. I've alluded to this before, but I think I'm finally ready to talk about it. I am, as established, in charge of anything electronic in the house, particularly the items with digital display. However, in 2000 I was a bit preoccupied with my 4-month-old firstborn son, and I neglected to make the rounds of the clocks on that Saturday night... most importantly, of course, the alarm clock.

So it was that, Sunday morning at "7:55", I sat in the rocker feeding the boy as my wife began her leisurely preparation for the morning's first church service. That is, the 9 a.m. service. I happened to glance toward the TV....

Can I just say, while I'm not a huge fan of The Cable Company -- although I'm sure yours is very different, of course -- there is one thing they do that's an indisputable, maybe even indispensable, public service: they deliver the correct time to your home. And that was how I discovered that it was actually 8:55... I'm sure there was an audible clicking of mental levers and switches as my omission dawned on me.

Naturally the scene devolved into a Keystone Kops short from there, but we were able to phone ahead (to a neighbor, since the church itself had no phone!) and basically ask them to start the service and keep it going till she could get there.

So... perhaps you can understand why I get a little bit unsettled round about this time of year.

I did find a way, for once, to foil the Amazing Alarm-Clock Boy. I actually forgot to reset his clock before bed, and then I thought, "Let's see what happens!" Sure enough, he didn' t emerge to use the bathroom till "6:30", little knowing it was really 7:30. Think he'd notice if I set it back another hour?