A Cowdogs Advice

Grip up, America!

Daylight savings

Hello Darkness – by any other name

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It seems these days people get pretty riled over the name of the hour. As a dog, I don’t wear a watch, so I don’t care if you call it five or six. 

I know when the sun comes up, know when it goes down, and know we are getting a lot less of it these days. Around here, it still lasts into evening, stretching over the mountains, granting about 10 hours to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is always frosty in the morning now, and I hurry in my duties, waiting for the late sun to warm things up a bit before I go exploring. But what a joyous, long, decent autumn!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It will get colder, with ice and snow. But in less than two months, this miraculous creation we’ve been given will stop its trend, downward to darkness! By then we will get only a miserly eight and a half hours of daylight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you realize that means we have two-thirds of every day spent in night, dark as the inside of a cow? That is a ridiculous amount of time without light I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a few days, I hear, we “change our clocks”.  That really makes no sense to me, because it doesn’t magically add any daylight hours, just changes your name for them!  As it stands now,  clocks get turned back an hour on the first Sunday of November, when standard time resumes.

 

 

 

Doesn’t matter what we call it, that time of year it is just plain pitch black a lot! I still go out and help with chores in the dark, and still try to cram a lot into a few well-lit hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The world turns, and is lit, according to God’s master plan. Seems to this dog that we are granted  moments of sunshine and moonlight, no matter what it is called.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I’ll just help lock up chickens earlier, and wait longer in the morning to let them out.  Very soon the cold sun, so far south, will turn, imperceptably at first, and give us a few more minutes of light.

 

 

 

We won’t notice for a long time though. Then there will be an evening in late winter, when light lingers a bit, a happy reminder we will inch back from overwhelming dark once again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think we will have more time inside, so maybe a batch of my biscuits will soon be baking!

 

For now, soak up the sun and don’t forget your clocks!

 

That Time Again

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It is a capricious spring weather week here for us; I laid on the porch and watched snow, wind, sunshine, snow, white-out, wind, sun, fog, and big-flaked straight down snow – again. It has been unseasonably cold for this time of year  – again. And it’s that time again.

 

 

 

 

 

But when I hear the news, I am happy we have food, clothes, heat – and a house we don’t need to leave because tanks are rolling up the road.

 

Time is swift, everything changes, yet so much remains the same. A year ago, we watched the start of a vicious war – and still it goes on. 

 

It is sad that always, there is war, invasion, fighting. There are self-serving tyrants that will not allow others to live peaceably. There are fools that run toward anarchy, just because it is there. 

 

 

 

 

 

But when the worst shows up, it also brings out the best. Large and small acts of kindness and aid are everywhere. Lots of prayers.

 

 

Among the changes of time, this weekend; Daylight Savings Time means the clock gets turned ahead one hour. It seems a silly thing in these times, to worry about what we call the hour. I’ve never understood how changing what you call it “saves daylight.” 

Seems to this dog that we get the same moments of sunshine and moonlight, pre-determined by God – no matter what it is called.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But mercifully, this time of year, those moments are ever-increasing in light. I like earlier mornings and long sunsets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daylight saving time returns to the U.S. on Sunday and is scheduled to end in early November as usual — unless Congress decides it’s time for a change. A proposal to end the decades-old practice of making Americans change their clocks twice a year is again being considered in Washington DC.

 

 

Under the measure, daylight saving time would be made permanent, so that most Americans would shift their clocks one hour forward Sunday and leave them that way. As it stands now, those clocks will need to be shifted back an hour on the first Sunday of November, when standard time resumes. Doesn’t matter what we call it, that time of year it is just plain dark a lot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No matter what you call it, the daylight hours are stretching further now, pushing dawn and dusk further into the night, bringing more sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is exciting to know soon it will get warmer, we will go from snow to mud, the hills will grow green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever we have, whatever we call it – make the most of the time you have. This old dog will make the most of sunshine time on the porch.