Tomorrow is my 24th birthday. It’s also the last Sunday in October, which means that at 2:00 AM, Daylight Saving Time ends, and clocks throughout the country — except in Hawaii, Arizona, and here in (most of) Indiana — “fall back” and essentially repeat the 1-2 AM hour. The result is a “25-hour day.”
Of course, this is a legal construct, not an astronomical one; it won’t take the Earth any longer than usual to rotate once around its axis tomorrow. Still, I must say, I like the idea of having a 25-hour-long birthday!
The last Sunday in October has been the ending date of DST since 1966. (Source.) I was born on Friday, October 30, 1981 — at 9:22 AM Eastern Standard Time in Hartford, Connecticut — and, checking the calendar, I see that I’ve had three Sunday birthdays: my second birthday in 1983, my seventh birthday in 1988, and my 13th birthday in 1994. By ‘94, I was old enough and nerdy enough that you’d think I would have thought of this, and would have revelled in the idea of a 25-hour birthday. But I don’t recall thinking about it at the time. Perhaps I did and forgot, or perhaps I was too distracted with the far more important fact of becoming a teenager — not to mention the REALLY big distraction in my life at the time: earlier that month, I had “asked out” a girl for the first time ever. :) Ah, middle school…
Anyway, because I live in a part of Indiana that doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time (yet), I won’t get to personally experience a 25-hour birthday tomorrow. D’oh! And because Congress is changing the ending date of Daylight Saving Time from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November starting in 2007, this is my last chance for an extended birthday. The next time my birthday falls on a Sunday, in 2011, Daylight Saving Time won’t end until November 6, barring another changing in the law.
So now, if I run for Congress in 2010, you’ll all know the secret reason why. I want a 25-hour birthday, dammit! ;)
|
Categories: Uncategorized
|
October 29th, 2005 at 2:23:09 pm
So what you’re saying is: your birthday is bigger than everyone else’s. :-P
October 29th, 2005 at 2:25:11 pm
Yup. :)
October 29th, 2005 at 3:03:56 pm
Size doesn’t Matter. :) Well. Perhaps in Middle School… :>… You find the damndest ways of Reminding people that’s it’s yer Birfday. :) Ah yes, I remember it well. It was a 25-hour Labour :)…dunno how I ever made it through…waw haw haw…nighttime, 10/29/1981: “Joe. The baby is coming.” / “RMMMPH? Naaah. It’s not for another 2 weeks. It’s false labor. I’m busy.” / “Joe. Shut up and get the Car keys.” / “Fie.” ;>
Happy Birthday Eve, old Kiddoe. :)
October 29th, 2005 at 4:29:08 pm
Oh Brendan, 24. How I remember the day! I went to bed a young woman, rosy-cheeked and 23, then woke up haggard, wrinkled, grouchy and arthritic. Enjoy this last day of youth! And your last birthday before you approach *menacing music* the DARK SIDE of your 20’s.
Oh well. At least you’re not 30. Heeheehee.
October 29th, 2005 at 4:53:12 pm
The question is: can I have respect for anyone born in the 80s? After all, I remember the 80s. Oh, you mere child. :)
October 29th, 2005 at 8:07:07 pm
Well, in Brendan’s defense, I bet he remembers the 80s as well. I mean, to those of us born in 1981, the final years of the 80s saw us at 8 and 9 years old. It’s not exactly unusual to have clear memories from 3rd grade.
I do, however, enjoy giving my officemate a hard time when she claims to have been a child of the 80s. At 8 years older than me, she was really a teenager of the 80s, where people of Brendan and my age were the children of the 80s. :)
October 29th, 2005 at 8:14:48 pm
Exactly unusual or not, the only thing I remember clearly from 3rd grade is Betsey Brown. / Never you mind. :) / Curse you, Doctor Mike, it follows from your analysis that I am merely a Teenager of the Sixties. That’s Identity theft, maaan. :) Lissen, ya punks, as a Valentine Child of the Great ‘48, I remember when Dewey defeated Truman that November. :>
October 30th, 2005 at 3:26:28 am
Ahhh yessss … one of the seminal examples of MSM accuracy !
LOL