Notes Goddess

Last DST2007 Posting

So, welcome back to the mainland for me.  After a week in Puerto Rico to escape the ravages and turmoil of the time change....oh wait - NOTHING HAPPENED?!  Whadya mean, nothing happened?!  I spent 7 months of my work life practically full time for NOTHING TO HAPPEN?!  .  I actually spent time change Sunday not in PR, but in Cedar Mountain, NC where the cell phones lose the signal about 10 miles from the top, and begin buzzing on the way back down.  It was a glorious Southern Spring day, the hiking was lovely and the critters moving alongside the trails and creeks didn't wear watches.  

Computerworld says the whole DST thing cost businesses $3 Billion dollars.  I don't buy it.  They say most of the cost is in lost productivity due to missed meetings. Again, I see most meetings as time vacuums where money is wasted, so missing them sends a positive balance to the bottom line.  What it kept me from doing is stuff that was much more important - like doing my part of the popular Best Practices checklists. Have you noticed that Calendar and Security are missing from that list also?  Yeah, well blame Congress.  I'm on it now though.  

All said, the near hysteria over the possibility of missed meetings was funny to me.  I've never been a fan of meetings, and have changed jobs more than once as my work became more meeting-oriented than action-oriented.  I'd rather do a 2 minute phone call and email follow ups than a 60 minute meeting where I have to trudge to a room with people who generally don't want to contribute work, toss out the other people who are still sitting there, and listen while others express opinions that will be ignored anyway unless they are the top manager in the room.  So I was with Kathleen when she recommended cancelling meetings.  She spent the post-DST week sitting on an open techline for emergency calls - and none happened.  

Anyway, things have settled down now, meetings are off schedule until April 2 in some places, we can go through Spring and Summer happily on Daylight Saving Time, and all the little Halloween monsters will trudge across my grass in the daylight next Fall instead of in the dark. (Note to the candy manufacturers:  I'm still going to close the door and turn out the light when I run out of candy - I'm not buying the little beggars any more than usual).  My magic self-adjusting bedside clock adjusted itself properly after I found directions on reprogramming it. The Blackberry, Palm, cable box and cell phone all changed magically and properly. After brief arguments, the car clocks yielded to the change (this happens every year tho), and the Blog Monkey still thinks its always 5 o'clock somewhere.  

Life is good.