I recently discovered that the best way to cope with the switch to daylight saving time is to go on vacation where they don’t observe it. The flight attendants tell you what time it is when you land, and you don’t have to change your watch again until it’s time to come home.
That said, I’m not ready to spring ahead. And it’s not just because I’m one of those crazy people who enjoys the snow — though that’s certainly a factor. I consider getting out skiing or snowshoeing to be my “frozen water therapy,” and I haven’t done nearly enough of it this winter.
Sure, I like driving to work — and back home again — in daylight. I appreciate not having to warm up my truck for 15 minutes to make the seven-minute commute. And it’s nice when I can get my “frozen water therapy” without freezing myself.
But the problem is, I have a whole list of things I was going to get done over the winter so I’d be ready for this summer, and I haven’t crossed any of them off the list.
As an aside, you may have heard me say much the same thing last fall, and probably every fall before that. Fortunately, I’ve saved last summer’s to-do list. This is a first for me, and we’ll see if picking up where I left off last year is more effective than starting a list from scratch.
The big difference between my summer to-do list and my winter to-do list is that the summer list is mostly stuff that can only be done during the summer, like yard maintenance or touching up the paint on the house.
Many of the items on the winter list are things to help enjoy summer activities. For example, we want to do some upgrades on the dinette in our camper to make it more comfortable. And I have a list of mountain bike parts I need to upgrade, repair or replace before I can hit the trails.
I’m not sure what’s holding me up from getting all those things done. Last fall, I could blame all the rain for not getting some of the outside chores done. Like a lot of us, I did spend a lot of my free time shoveling snow this winter, but I feel like this winter has gone by too fast.
My volunteer activities also seem to take up more of my free time than I anticipate. And one of my new favorite hobbies seems to be napping, which also seems to take up a lot of free time.
The good news is, we’ve got two more months of “spring,” which I’ll define as “the time before trails have firmed up enough for hiking and biking.” You could point out that trails are firm enough to do that now – you just need snowshoes and fat tires – so I guess I need to add “after most of the snow has melted” to that definition.
In any case, while we’ve had some gorgeous sunny, warm days, temperatures are still dropping below freezing overnight. And, we’re still going to get some more snow.
So, as long as I’m not too busy shoveling, I should be able to get a few of those things done. Of course, if there’s more snow, that means there’s more opportunity for some “frozen water therapy.”
Oh, and while I didn’t have to cope with the daylight saving time change on vacation, it did mean an extra hour time change when we got home, and I’m feeling a little jet lagged.
Maybe I’ll go take a nap.
Will Morrow lives in Kenai. Reach him at willmorrow2015@gmail.com.
