Mistakes and Experiments

We change time zones frequently. Mostly we go back and forth between Eastern and Central with occasional sojourns into Mountain and Pacific time zones. The time zone changes do not seem to bother us much until we make big jumps into Africa. We have detailed our adventures with adjustments before.

KJo and I struggled for three weeks when we returned from Australia and New Zealand in March of 2020. Our first three weeks of Coronavirus CAN'T Meeting were a blur to us. We could not sleep much day or night. The only time I was really sleepy was about 30 minutes before going live with revival each night.😊

Even though changing between Eastern and Central time zones does not seem to bother us much, Daylight Savings Time messes with all three of us! Changing to Daylight Savings in the spring and changing back in the fall, seems to rock our little world.

This year, I made a doozy of a mistake. We have been on Central Time for two months. Going from Alabama last week to revival in Georgia this week, moved us from Central to Eastern Time Zone. This past Sunday was also the beginning of Daylight Savings Time.

Which means,

We woke up Saturday morning on Central Time. 

We woke up Sunday morning on Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

That difference meant we lost two hours between Saturday morning and Sunday morning. Odie informed me that was not good scheduling on my part. She is correct!

That prompted an experiment on my part. We were traveling Friday and Saturday, so theoretically, time did not matter.

Friday morning I set my phone two hours forward. I also had KJo change the clock by the dash of the bus and by the bed. I wanted my mind trained to Eastern Daylight Savings Time all day Friday and Saturday.

How did it work? Well...Pretty good. I was tired from camp meeting and from the stress of traveling Friday, so I had no problem laying down at 10:30 by my phone, even though it was only 8:30 Central. I woke up at 5:00 on the clock. That was 6.5 hours sleep, plenty in my world, so I got up and ignored the fact it was 3:00 AM Central.

Saturday, we fueled the bus, drove, unhooked the Jeep, carried in sound, parked the bus, hooked up utilities, set up sound and then spent the balance of the day trying to be prepared for revival. When I laid down before 10:00, I had been up and going for 17 hours and I had no trouble going to sleep even though it was only 8:00 PM Central.

I mostly slept until 6:00 Daylight Savings Time and got up well rested. I should be rested, that is 8 hours of pretty good sleep and that is pretty incredible for me. I felt good all day and it was easy to go to bed Sunday night.

Our voices were still on Central Time Sunday morning, but morning singing is always a little rough on us. It is difficult to warm up our voices and keep them warm during Sunday School.😊

So far, I would say my experiment worked this time. The trick was keeping my mind on the two hour forward time and ignoring Central time. If we had church Friday night or plans to meet someone Saturday at a specific time, it would probably have thrown me off.

Lesson learned? Watch the calendar better when scheduling revivals at the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. Odie will thank me for it!

Thank you for dropping in today.

Davy