My best worst idea

Yesterday, I arrived home in the US from a business trip in London. It was the Saturday before Fall Back Sunday and although that timing wasn’t planned, it worked out well, giving me an extra hour to recover from jet lag. While I’m not a fan of Daylight Savings Time, Fall Back is a real treat. That extra hour can be a gift.The success of that arrangement reminded me of a less successful Fall Back several years ago . . .

It was a the mid 1990s and I was in the last third of my PhD program. Things were going reasonably well that fall and unlike prior years (and others to come), I wasn’t feeling overly stressed. That particular year, I decided to save the 60 minute gift for a time when I really needed it. My work schedule was flexible and it would cause no problem if I came in an hour earlier than my lab mates. Then, when I really needed the extra hour — for an experiment, for sleep, or , dare I say, fun — I would would use my hour and reset to align with everyone else.

It sounded brilliant — then and even now. But, alas, it didn’t work out. I unknowingly frittered away my extra hour over several days (weeks?), a minute or two here and there. By the time I needed to use my precious hour, it was gone and I never got to cherish it. There have been many times in the years since that I’ve longed for that lost hour.

Nowadays, in the season of Fall Back, I remember that time and wish I could try again, but our family’s school and work schedules and other obligations preclude a second attempt, at least for now. Maybe I’ll give it another shot when I retire . . .