Posted in 2023, life, Memories, thoughts, Writing

Daylight Saving Time Yea or Nay?

Growing up I loved when the clocks moved forward an hour! This was before they started messing with when it happened. Every year it was the last Sunday in April and with my birthday being the 22nd, it was a pretty good bet it would happen on the morning of our family party.

Our relatives, including 4 close in age cousins, would come over for food and cake and us kids would play in the yard all afternoon. My dad would bring out the motor scooter with side car (on loan from his brother) and take everyone on rides around the neighborhood. It felt like the day stretched on forever!

Falling back an hour usually coincided with Halloween back in the 70s so it would be nice and dark early when Halloween rolled around. We’d get out around 5pm and by back by 9pm to sort our candy and make trades. My sisters and I went to a catholic elementary school so we’d have the next day off because of All Saints Day. It was one of the few perks of going to our school!

I came to realize very quickly that babies do not recognize Daylight Saving time! Dogs too. They are going to keep on their regular sleep, eat, poop time regardless of what the clock says!

As the years have gone by, I realize I don’t do well with the time change at all! I’m going to bed at 9 when it’s really 10 and then getting up at 5:20 – which my husband reminds me “it was 6:20” – and I feel exhausted! Or because “it’s really only 8 but the clock says 9!”, I’ll stay up for an extra hour and again, exhausted!

Arizona and Hawaii have it right – they just don’t participate. Good for them! Who do I need to talk to here in Connecticut? I think we should be a little oasis of common sense!

How to do you feel about the time change?

6:30 am sunrise
Posted in 2023, life, Writing

It’s A Good Place To Live

What do you love about where you live?

I live in a 40,000+ town in Connecticut that was incorporated in 1670. My family has lived here since the mid 1920s. It is very conveniently located between the two major highways running north and south in the state and close to two major cities.

It is a decent sized town (all 169 locations in Connecticut are called towns, and we have counties but we don’t use them like many other states do). Because it is so old (353 years old!), there were many farms that had animals, fruits, and vegetables growing in them and a few still remain.

Ok, I love my town because it is large enough to have box stores, but they don’t dominate the area. We have a great “center of town” with good restaurants, a classic town hall, and new coffee shops, a couple of spas, and a good selection of hair salons.

My town has many activities to gather people together. It has a great Farmers Market in the summer, a weekend festival in October to celebrate the town, and a holiday stroll in early December.

Our town is involved with preserving open space and we have trails for hiking, mountain biking, and fields for soccer, baseball, softball, and courts for tennis and pickleball.

Our public library is one of the best in the state! When I was young it was in a beautiful building built in the early 1900s. When they ran out of room, they built another one a short distance away. When they needed more room in recent years, they added on again! It’s a beautiful, welcoming place with wonderful programs.

The more I talk about my town, the more I realize how much I love it. I left in 1988 to live in California with my new husband. We moved back in 1995 to buy the house I grew up in, to be close to family, and to raise our son in a great environment. I’m so happy we came back!