Daylight Savings Time

Brax,

Well, the last thing you needed was another blizzard, and it looks like you got one anyway. I am sorry, I know you are all bummed about the winterness, but I am incredibly jealous. My parents called me last night to tell me how they were out walking in the snow and the dogs were all romping and stuff and I wished so hard that I could apparate over there.

It's daylight savings time tomorrow! Shiiiiiiit, I hate daylight savings time. It's sort of nice for people who work in offices, but I don't intend to work in an office for much longer because I was not meant for such an life. But I guess people who work in offices should have that nice sunshine at the end of the day all summer, to make their lives better.

Benjamin Franklin invented daylight savings time (thanks, Mom). At least, he came up with the idea as a joke, and then some other dude thought it would be great for real. I've read Ben's essay where he came up with it. But it's a little different, you know, in its original form. Ben says that in the 1700s in France, all those powder-wigged fops kicked it so hard at night that they always slept through the morning. Benjamin Franklin thought about all the candles they burned while they had late night petit fours or whatever, and he thought, if these hedonistic French people would just wake up early like regular people (if I remember correctly, Franklin himself got up every day at like 4 AM or something....no, wait...that was Thomas Jefferson. Shut up, I know history.)...if they would wake up early like regular people, then they wouldn't have to burn all those candles all night! They could eat petit fours while the sun is out instead, and sleep when the sun goes down, and everyone would save so much money on candles! FRANCE. WAKE IT UP!

So anyway. The idea is still to save candles, except now we have lights and stuff, and the logic is not as cut and dry as it was for France in the 1700's. A lot of people say it wastes energy rather than saves it, because people use their air conditioners more on those hot afternoons. Also, I don't really understand why it is only in summer...I probably would, though, if I were to take the time to read the Wikipedia page on it.

So there you go....now you know all about daylight savings time, and aren't you glad I bought the Benjamin Franklin Reader on sale last year?

In other news, I spent the whole week with the stomach flu, which blew. It blew! I'm still sick, but at least I'm not...expelling things anymore. It is a stupid, cloudy, rainy day. So what I'm sayin' is, If you need me today, I'll be knittin' on the couch!

First, though, I have to take a shower, because I feel like a crazy ugly grime monster. My hair is--literally, I am being very serious here--standing straight up, like an emu's.

Try not to freeze to death!
Bruce


ETA: P.S. Over at Aunt Purl's place they're having this serious Patrick Swayze love fest! I love it! I am really enjoying the comments. One of the commenters said something about how they played the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing so much the tape broke, and I just loved that. I feel like it's the kind of sentence that only people (mostly girls) of a certain age group really, really get.

Apparently we were not the only young ladies who were watching Dirty Dancing over and over on VHS at slumber parties while flipping our tall bangs around. OK, I whipped my tall bangs around. Brax never had tall bangs, her hair is too thick and beautiful to allow itself to be subjected to any such horrible fad. Unfortunately, my hair is the kind of hair that says "I am here to be sculpted into whatever style will look ridiculous in the yearbook. Or on the internet. Just spray me, man." Anyway, the point is, get well soon, Patrick. Maybe we should knit Patrick Swayze a patchwork blanket, so he'll feel better.