dark, darker, darkest
watch the day going backwards
ready, get set, go
We read in the Bible that:
Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”
“It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah.
“Rather, have it go back ten steps.”
Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz. (2 Kings 20:9-11 NIV).
I came to work last week and the sun was up and out of the Atlantic Ocean and shining in my eyes and the sunshine made me feel good the way sunshine does down here.
Maybe growing up in West Michigan which has the 2nd most overcast skies in America just behind Seattle, made me really appreciate sunlight.
There is a quality to a bright sunshiny day that I hope I never take for granted.
This morning I got up and drove to work in darkness.
I parked behind the office and walked through the pool area to back doors on sidewalks lit by street lamps.
I have no strong feelings about daylight saving time one way or the other.
It came with the year, like the holidays and was controlled by the Government, like taxes.
The concept of all of us being on the same clock seemed important.
When you think about it, that the Prime Meridian is pretty much accepted by the world regardless of race, creed or country of origin is unusal.
According to Wikipedia, In 1884, the International Meridian Conference (of government representatives) took place in Washington, D.C. to establish an internationally-recognised single meridian.
That Conference decided to accept The Greenwich meridian as the prime meridian, a geographical reference line that passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, England.[1] From 1884 to 1974, the Greenwich meridian was the international standard prime meridian, used worldwide for timekeeping and navigation. This prime meridian (at the time, one of many) was first established by Sir George Airy (in 1851).
Greenwich Mean Time.
GMT.
Somewhere I have seem photos of a metal rail or rod set in stone that marks the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory in London.
Imagine my shock when looking up data for this essay I read in Wikipedia that in1984 it was superseded in that role by the IERS Reference Meridian which, at this latitude, runs about 102 metres to the east of the Greenwich meridian.
I do not know if there is a brass rail somewhere in London marker the IERS Reference Meridian.
BUT I digress.
I remember a lecture back in college where the Professor described how back in the day in small towns, the local jeweler, if there was one, would take their best clock on the first day of spring, would watch the shadows and when the sun was directly overhead and the shadows disappear, the jeweler would set the clock to noon and hopefully the clock would function properly until you could set the time again on the first day of winter.
The Professor didn’t say what would happen on cloudy days.
Then along came trains and train schedules and standard time so that trains would run on time and not run into each other.
I have a old gold packet watch at home from 1900.
It was certified to keep Official Railroad time which meant it could run for a year with just being wound and not lose more than 15 seconds.
It was a Federal Law that if you worked for a Railroad you had to carry such a watch.
Again I digress and here we are in Daylight Saving Time.
I am again driving in the dark, waiting for the sunrise in a couple of weeks.
We changed all the clocks.
All the iPhones change by themeselves.
If it wasn’t for Ovens, Microwaves and Cars, most folks wouldn’t even notice though they may scratch their heads and wonder why it was dark again.
And I am reminded of an incident back when I was working in the Newsroom in Atlanta.
I was proofing a story and noticed that a reporter, answering all the whos, whats and wheres had stated that the when was 10:15 a.m. EST.
I approached the reporter and said that the time had changed and they should now use EDT in place of EST.
The reporter stared at me for a second, and I am not embellishing this one bit, and they asked, “Those letters mean something?”
Now it was my turn to stare.
Before I could say anything, the show’s Producer spoke up.
“They do, they do!”, said the Producer.
“I looked it up!”
No Haiku For You 