Hope you remembered to turn your clock ahead an hour if you
live where daylight savings time alternates with standard time. California voters passed an initiative last
November to make DST permanent year ‘round.
Our state legislature has to approve
it by a two-thirds vote, then the federal government has to authorize. We will join Florida awaiting passage of a Congressional
bill followed by Presidential signature with the result being we won’t have to
change our clocks any more!
“The majority of Arizona is on permanent standard time, and
year-round DST is followed by Hawaii and the territories of American Samoa,
Guam, the Minor Outlying Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico,
and the US Virgin Islands.” The Verge.
There have been studies about how our sleep and health are
affected by having to make the DST time changes. Now that the clock no longer dictates my daily
life schedule my arising and retiring to sleep has much more flexibility,
perhaps my body is less affected by the changes.
“Though spread over five time zones, China recognizes only
one, Beijing time. It is supposed to
promote unity, but for those who live in the far west, the summer sun sets as
late as midnight.
If the U.S. observed the one-time-zone policy (Washington,
D. C., time, of course), the summer sun in Arizona would set as late as 10:42
p.m.”
* * *
We all are probably aware of the research results that have
concluded how important socialization can be for the psychological well-being
of older people – especially those who may live alone or don’t have family or
friends close-by with whom to interact. Whatever our situation we make our daily
social life with those we encounter on all levels of human interaction.
I don’t feel compelled to have contact with another person
every day. Some days I find shopping at
my local grocery, a visit to my pharmacy or other stores provides all the human
contact I want with conversation at a quite sufficient level to nourish me
socially.
Then, there’s the verbal interaction that comes with those
scam phone calls. The latest one I
received was a recording allegedly from the prime internet mail order business whose
name they used. I was told my account (what account?) had been
“locked” in a city they also named with which I was familiar. The accented male voice rapidly spewed out
all sorts of order and account numbers followed by instructions to respond by
choosing one of two phone links for immediate connection with them. Then finally I was admonished to phone a
number they provided for their “Security” Department.
Of course, I ignored all those instructions. I did independently phone the real Internet
company, confirmed there was no such locked account there in my name. I was told this was a new scam to them of
which they would notify their Security Dept.
Later a friend told me they had received a similar scam allegedly from
the same Internet company, but via email.
Subsequently, my tech guru counseled me there was no need to
double check such a call – notification of the account being “locked” would not
be given by a phone call -- just ignoring the call whether or not a message is
left is sufficient. A second recorded call alleged to be from that
same company was left another day from an unaccented woman speaker. Do any of these interactions count for
socialization minutes?
Recently, my social life has seemed to center mostly on
interaction with various service repair people – the phone calls for
appointments, then the calls on service day to learn when they’ll arrive or
awaiting a call they’re on their way, re-arranging other appointments. When these household items on which we’re so
dependent malfunction, I’m reminded of how much we take for granted when
everything works as it should – whether our appliances, digital devices, or our
bodies.
I do resist looking over the shoulder of the workmen, or
engaging them in much conversation when they’re working as don’t want to
distract them. But we do rack up some social gab they often
introduce i.e. their experience repairing their house’s plumbing, or their wife
is going to have a baby. My husband
used to find talk distracting when he was fixing things. In later years concentration became more challenging for him with interruptions angering him. He never really enjoyed being a
handyman. He said he’d rather play a
dance job and hire someone else to fix things.
Finally, and hopefully, my house drains are all sufficiently open, not only for
bathroom but washing machine operations and utility room wash tub emptying. But...I
am considering having the kitchen drain reamed out, just on general principle –
am I getting addicted to service person calls?
Frankly, when it comes to socializing, I must confess I’d really rather be having discussions with
other than my service providers and on topics other than the technicalities of
drain pipes, reaming devices, materials causing blockage, aging effects on the
old piping in my house’s system. I’m ready to move on to different topics with
other people.
So, what are your thoughts about socialization in your life and/or
DST?
