Time warp

It's been more than a week since we turned the clocks ahead for daylight savings time, and I'm still stuck on standard time. The dark mornings that made me feel so virtuous in January, for getting up so early, now just feel dark. It's too early to be up.

It's not that I haven't tried to adjust. I went to bed early almost every night last week, sometimes as early as 8:30. And yet, when the alarm went off in the morning, I couldn't find the snooze button fast enough.

The time changes in the fall and the spring never used to bother me. I'd just get up at the new time and go about my day an hour earlier or later than before. But as I get older, it's getting harder to make the adjustment. I don't bounce like I used to.

The boys seem to have adjusted pretty well. Brian and Timmy are sleeping a little later than they had been before the change, and that's okay. It just means we have to move a little faster on school mornings.

Abby, however, has gone into hyper-time. For the past few mornings, she's woken up long before anyone else in the house. Today at 4:30, I heard her poking around in her room, and went upstairs to find her wide awake and reading a Junie B. Jones book.

"Abby, what are you doing up?" I asked her.

"Reading," she answered. (Ask a silly question....)

"It's 4:30!" I exclaimed in a whisper.

"I looked at the clock," she replied calmly, innocently.

I tried again. "Abby, it's 4:30 in the morning. It's too early to be up. Get in bed and go back to sleep."

"Okay," she said.

I don't know if she slept, but she was quiet for an hour or so; an hour in which Earl informed me that he thinks Abby needs a later bedtime and then promptly resumed his snoring. The other highlight of the hour was my hitting the snooze button at least three times before I gave up and got up, myself.

Now, after coffee, I'm feeling a little less sluggish. Maybe this early-morning time warp will be what helps me finally adjust to daylight savings time. Or maybe I'll just take a nap.