I’m not a Daylight Saving Time fan. When I was working, it meant I spent at least two months a year adjusting to something that served no purpose in my 24 hour a day/three shift workplace. There was heavy energy usage 24 hours a day, and twice a year, jet lagged associates operated dangerous equipment with their circadian rhythms screwed up!

Now that I am retired, my cats decide when I get up, which further confuses the issue of “What time is it?” In a cat/ dog/ horse/ cow/ any-other-critter-up-to-and-including-human-children household, time isn’t regulated by a mechanical or digital timepiece, it’s all about tummy time: “Wake up! Wake up! Feed me! NOW!”

We should have saved that ancient rum for tonight, whiskers be damned! Argh!

Yes, Andy and Dougy will wake me up when their little cat stomachs empty sufficiently to trigger the hunger button.

This is the “spring forward” season, right? Skip an hour ahead so that 2 AM tonight is 3 AM DST.

My cats reckon 3 AM is “feed the kitties time”, so you’d think I’d get their wake up call at 4 AM DST – or 3 AM standard time, if we didn’t mess with the clocks. That’s the time the boys sense it’s time to be fed – 3 AM – eh?!

I guarantee Dougy and Andy don’t grasp the concept. They operate of a “spring back/ fall forward” notion of time. Really! Born on July 1, 2011, the boys reckon standard time is what we call DST, and vice versa. Confused? No more than my cats: I’ll get my wake up call at 2 AM standard time tomorrow morning, when clocks should be set ahead to 3 AM for Daylight Saving Time.

Guess what? Come standard time next fall, when tummy time is 3 AM Daylight Savings Time, finally, the cats won’t give me that extra hour of sleep to 4 AM standard time. At least I think that’s how they handle it. All I know is the boys never let me have an extra hour of sleep at Fall time change!

Still confused? No more than my cats and me.