A few years ago, around the time I needed to buy new alarm clock radios, clock manufacturers began installing something I didn’t ask for and didn’t particularly want — an automatic adjustment for daylight savings time. Resetting the clocks twice a year was something of a ritual, and not one I minded, though I preferred the old spring date of the third Sunday in April, which corresponded to the leafing of the trees in New York. But now we have a war, created in part by our dependence on foreign oil, and a potential long-run environmental disaster also tied to our use of fossil fuels, yet our leaders, statesmen that they are, feel they are in no position to ask anyone to make any sacrifices for the greater good at all. So they could only agree on one, “no sacrifice” energy saving measure. Again changing the dates for beginning and end of daylight savings time.
Well, some clocks now have a radio link to the national official time and some don’t, so I had no idea if my clocks would change a few weeks ago. I had to set one ahead, left one back, and set both alarms to make sure I would wake up on time that morning. The clocks didn’t change, and I had to change them. That means they will change again this Sunday morning at 2 am, and after having changed them forward, I will have to change them back. And in the fall, the alarm clocks will “fall back” incorrectly on the last Sunday of October, forcing me to “spring forward” again, before I “fall back” again a few weeks later.
I am also generally the first or second person to arrive at my office. The electronic access system only allows entry by all but a few employees at certain times — after 7 pm for example. So on Monday a few weeks ago, when I showed up as usual at 7:30 am, guess what? I was locked out of my office. It took a long investigation to figure out why the security system had failed. It's clock hadn't changed. And now, it will change again.
Something for nothing never works in the end. In this case it didn’t work in the beginning.