I defer the act as long as possible. I never reset the alarm clock before going to bed the night before. If I leave the clock untouched, I'll gain an hour the next morning, when I might need it. But whenever I finally decide to cave into common practice and reset my clock, I feel myself falling backwards into short days and what will most certainly feel like mid-afternoon sunsets.

Today will be a warm day, but colder days are coming, days made dark by the early arrival of sunset and not improved a lick by the earlier sunrise.

So, I felt myself falling backwards this morning as I reset my watch. The alarm clock? I'll probably wait a few days before finally accepting the inevitable and falling backwards into my bed.

I am a time traveler. I don't make great leaps into the future or the past, but move a sparse hour either way. Forward with great anticipation every spring, then backwards, losing my optimism in the fall. Now a fallen man, I move forward slightly out of synch until spring brings my real time back on line.