I had the privilege of attended the wedding of colleague’s lovely daughter yesterday- it was a delightful afternoon, and the skies did not darken nor the rain fell until the ceremony was done and the wedding party pictures were safely digitized. Then we were all safe by the bar.
It was a dark, dank black night, so we all stayed at the Embassy Suites near the venue at the River Creek Club, where we looked out over the Potomac to the wooded hills of Maryland.
Due to the joyful but sometime pernicious temptations of the open bar, a bus was provided to avoid untoward incidents and protect the residents of Loudoun County.
Awaking refreshed and content on this Fall Back Sunday morning, I gathered up the wreckage of my grown-up clothes and checked out after a remarkably excellent breakfast.
I returned fairly early to Arlington, but was suffering from chronologic dysphoria, and resolved to force myself to “Fall back” as directed and change the displays on all the clocks in the residence. I was looking at the display on the dashboards of the Panzer and the Police Car.
At that point my resolve began to harden.
I recall the story about the Marines at Belleau Wood. As they arrived, they found French troops retreating through their lines. A French colonel scribbled a note to the Devil Dog company CO, Capt. Lloyd William of the 51st Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. The Marine looked at the Frenchman coldly and said, “Retreat, Hell! We just got here.” No fall back for the Marines, and none here.
Why do we do this to ourselves? I wandered from the parking lot at Big Pink through all the rooms of my little apartment. As I went, I counted the two automotive clocks- neither working the same, of course- and two on the media center, two more clock radios, the Soviet “Krasniy Oktyabr” naval clock in the bedroom and I am sure there are more. Network time on all the devices changed themselves, thankfully., but I think it is time to take a stand.
But that said, I am prepared to fight injustice. I am seriously considering that I may not “Spring Ahead” in the Spring. People will just have to accept that I intend to be on Central Socotra time now, and half the year I will be an hour late for meetings and appointments.
Oh, and yeah, I spent the afternoon mapping the sections of the unorthodox biography of Admiral Mac Showers. Here is the table of contents for the Post War/Cold War period:
Table of Contents
Cocktails With the Admiral, Part Two:
Cold War, Vietnam and life in the Swamp
Tightening the Belt
Slivovitz
Revolt of the Admirals
Liking Ike
Witch Hunts
Mac and Liz
Regime Change
The White Palace
The High Line
The Clip-On Bow Tie
Tradecraft
The First Fleet
Old Navy
Det Alpha
Vigilantes
Why One
Space Age
Blue Ribbon Panels
Higher Education
Way Down Yonder- In Vietnam
Desotos
What Nedzi Knew
Zumwalt’s Whiz Kids
Civilians