Aimless Sunday morning thoughts...

Yes, it is Sunday morning, a sunny, yet, brisk 55 degree day...before it warms to the mid 70's and I sip my too-bitter coffee (can't get it right everyday) comtemplating how to write again. I got into a good habit a year ago, writing about all kinds of stuff. Politics, family, experiences I just wanted to vent and/or share with whoever wanted to tune in. It was a good ride. It's no secret that after I lost my job almost 6 months ago, I simply dropped off the face of the earth. I had to. I needed to sulk, to grieve, to get pissed at myself and ultimately, to find peace with all that transpired and realize that new opportunities, even better ones, now lay before me. Pretty normal process, really.

I finally set up the new computer in the boys old room upstairs (they are now in the 2 downstairs bedrooms). It is next to our master bedroom, near the front window. A bit primitive - desk, chair and computer, but, it's a new space, my own version of a "man-cave", just without the excess testosterone. Remnants of the boys years remain here via a leftover red bunkbed with a couple of Spongebob stickers still adhered and...more than likely...a few old boogies stuck to the wall-side of the bunks. (Sorry to be crass, but if you raise boys you learn real quick that wall snot just becomes an everyday event, like thrown-together dinners or missing socks. The little darlings.) It is a space that my wife has certainly noticed I spend a lot more time in lately. I get a few more raised eyebrows nowadays, but, they are deserved. Can't help it...I'm a little obsessed. Free to check my email whenever I want, check out Facebook and look up any flippin' recipe I want without having to kick a kid off of "World of Warcraft" or "Games.com" all the time. A little slice of heaven to myself.

So I sit at the computer over-looking my street and, lately especially, look at all these long-forgotten faces of people from my past on Facebook. Quite the phenomonon, this social networking tool seems to be growing exponentially in its membership as more and more people from Milltown, St. Joseph's High School and Trenton State College are popping up in front of my face. In many ways it's wonderful. People I never thought I'd get the chance to see again or connect with after I moved so far away are now an IM away. It's an experience I'm still on a honeymoon with. Or perhaps it's just an affair. Not sure. After all, it's exciting. Like stealing moments, right? But how long will it last? Will something new replace it in 6 months time? Will it still need me, when I'm 64? (That was just on the radio - gotta love the Beatles)Or will the novelty wear off soon and I'll feel guilty for having re-entered these peoples lives, only to fade away, yet again, as if it were meant to be and the universe was now just balancing out again.

What about those people who anticipated seeing old high school chums at the 25th year reunion and still had 2 years to get back in shape? What recourse are they given? I suppose it's only invasive if you allow it, huh? Personally, I think Facebook will be as awesome or evil as you allow it to be. After all, it's been 20+ years since I've seen some of these people and most of us have matured enough to say, you know what...all that crap we went through way back when...water under the bridge, man. Water under the bridge. But... that's because I'm an eternal optimist. I always have been but, I admit, I did lose it a few months ago. That window got blurry for a while but I'm happy to announce that I'm back. And I'm looking forward to chatting with some old friends who look as old as me.

Arizona's Daylight Savings Mystery Revealed

Not everyone knows about it beyond the residents of the Grand Canyon State or beyond those friends and family members who communicate with us, but to state a strange state fact - Arizona does not observe daylight savings time. There are several reasons for this, most of which are outdated, leaving us with the sociological phenomena of, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

In 1784, Ben Franklin wrote a paper extolling the need for such a rule to assist the economics of the day. Candles, you see, were the primary source of light after nightfall and the demand for wax was beginning to outweigh the supply, driving up the prices for candles everywhere. With such a necessity in danger of breaking the bank, he theorized that by changing the clocks twice a year to accommodate for the changes in sun phases, Americans could save a bundle on energy costs. Smart dude. Although it didn't result in any policy changes it got people thinking that it could be done.

Nearly 100 years later it was the almighty dollar that finally got the ball rolling. Railroads were screaming for some sort of standardized time to assist with scheduling with our bordering neighbor, Canada, and Congress finally acted by establishing an official Standard time zone. Then, in the First World War, the government established an official daylight savings time to conserve energy during wartime to offset costs. Once the war was over the Feds dropped it as a mandatory federal law and allowed the states to individually adopt or not adopt the twice a year change. Some did, some didn't. With so many states on different schedules it was ultimately too confusing and did not mix well with the advancing industrial and now technological age, so, in 1966 Congress passed the Uniform Time Act establishing a beginning and end date for daylight-saving time, but leaving it up to local jurisdictions to decide whether to use it. Arizona reluctantly agreed. For one year, in 1967, Arizona followed the clock change and people were really steamed about it. Literally. In 1967, you see, Arizonans did not have air-conditioning in their homes beyond what's called a swamp cooler which cools your house by a means of forcing air through water. But in our hottest months of July and August the humidity is sky high due to the monsoon weather rendering the swamp cooler completely useless. Adding another waking hour of sunlight was more than people could handle ( I dare you to experience one night of 105 degrees with humidity and no air-conditioning, not to mention about 90 of them), and additionally...Phoenix was for the most part an agricultural state, depending on farming for its economy which made the workers a little hot under the collar, so to speak. The very next year the law was rescinded.

Today we remain the last holdout. Like Clint Eastwood's Josey Wales. (Indiana finally gave in in 2007) Although the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona does observe daylight savings to accommodate uniformity with their other tribal lands in other states, they do not fall in, geographically, with the deserts of Phoenix and Tucson, thus they do not experience the heat in the way that we do down here. Obviously, today, most everyone has the modern convenience of climate control and we're not the farming community we once were but decades of retirees continued to resist the change.

Today, however, is different. As one of the fastest growing states in the union, this lasting holdout of a concept could change as the population of Arizona continues to get younger and younger. With the energy demands of so many air-conditioners, my power goes out several times a year already, so, I'm resetting my clocks anyway. What's twice more.