The following was a short piece I wrote that was published in the Chicago Tribune a few years ago, I thought with daylight savings time upon us it deserved another run!
On the night we turned our clocks back for daylight-savings time, my husband and I went to bed with smiles on our faces, looking forward to that luxurious extra hour of slumber. Such a simple pleasure in these crazy time crunched days we live in.
At 4:45 a.m. it started. A faint whimper from the dog bed, the restless paws out-stretching, then the clickety-clack of dog nails on the hardwood floor, which immediately awoke the other two dogs. I felt warm doggy breath on my face as I played possum while squinting to see the clock. For the love of Pete, 4:56 a.m.!
As a wet nose scanned my face, it became immediately evident: Dogs do not understand the concept of daylight-savings-time. Their internal clocks cared nothing about an extra hour of sleep; they wanted breakfast at what they perceived to be their regular feeding time.
I continued to feign sleep, but by now the dogs were taking turns whining to communicate the early signs of supposed starvation. The tone and pitch of the whines getting more melodramatic by the moment. I nudged my husband, but a scan to my left showed his bald head swaddled in our down comforter like a newborn babe as he snoozed blissfully.
So I shuffled downstairs bleary eyes at 5:07 a.m., fed the dogs, then let them outside. "Perhaps I could still go back to bed" I thought to myself and in the same instant one of the dogs spotted their arch nemesis Mr. Squirrel in a tree and the chorus of shrill barking began. Wanting to keep the dream alive for others in the neighborhood who lay in sweet slumber I dashed outside in the morning chill in my PJ's and slippers. Reality set in as I extinguished the barking that my dream of that magic extra hour was also extinguished. Forced to start my day an hour earlier than planned I looked at three exuberant dogs and realized once again they are far wiser than I. Why waste that extra hour sleeping when you can just start your day sooner? So I did.
On the night we turned our clocks back for daylight-savings time, my husband and I went to bed with smiles on our faces, looking forward to that luxurious extra hour of slumber. Such a simple pleasure in these crazy time crunched days we live in.
At 4:45 a.m. it started. A faint whimper from the dog bed, the restless paws out-stretching, then the clickety-clack of dog nails on the hardwood floor, which immediately awoke the other two dogs. I felt warm doggy breath on my face as I played possum while squinting to see the clock. For the love of Pete, 4:56 a.m.!
As a wet nose scanned my face, it became immediately evident: Dogs do not understand the concept of daylight-savings-time. Their internal clocks cared nothing about an extra hour of sleep; they wanted breakfast at what they perceived to be their regular feeding time.
I continued to feign sleep, but by now the dogs were taking turns whining to communicate the early signs of supposed starvation. The tone and pitch of the whines getting more melodramatic by the moment. I nudged my husband, but a scan to my left showed his bald head swaddled in our down comforter like a newborn babe as he snoozed blissfully.
So I shuffled downstairs bleary eyes at 5:07 a.m., fed the dogs, then let them outside. "Perhaps I could still go back to bed" I thought to myself and in the same instant one of the dogs spotted their arch nemesis Mr. Squirrel in a tree and the chorus of shrill barking began. Wanting to keep the dream alive for others in the neighborhood who lay in sweet slumber I dashed outside in the morning chill in my PJ's and slippers. Reality set in as I extinguished the barking that my dream of that magic extra hour was also extinguished. Forced to start my day an hour earlier than planned I looked at three exuberant dogs and realized once again they are far wiser than I. Why waste that extra hour sleeping when you can just start your day sooner? So I did.
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