Standard Time, Little Luxuries, and the Hokey Pokey

We changed back to standard time.  Did you change the batteries in your smoke detectors?  Seems like batteries should last more than six months. Changing them twice a year is a little luxury we can afford in the name of safety.

Changed my watch to standard time, but in the morning it was sitting and blinking on the time I reset. It had failed to start the new time.  Then I noted that after a day's delay I had not changed the wall clock.  So I asked a care giver to do that.  Now I see that is sitting stuck on the time she changed it. Clocks hate the new time I guess.

Changing batteries more often than is absolutely necessary is a little luxury.  I knew a man who had two alarm clocks, an unnecessary expense.  He had two so that if woke while lying on his right side he could see a clock without turning over, and the same if he woke on his left side.

The same man had two copies of the morning paper delivered.  He could leave a  copy for his wife, and he could have a copy to read during the commute to work

A nurse in WWII was changing the sheets in the hospital bed and commented that she changed the hospital sheets daily, but in the barracks they got fresh sheets once a week.  She expressed a desire, upon returning to civilian life, to have fresh sheets daily.  I told her that was a little luxury she could afford, just because she wanted to.  And in fact, it that was where her heart lay, she could probably have NEW sheets every day... if she didn't need satin.

Frank Gilbreath, who invented time motion study, had revolutionized factory work, and even surgery, and was asked what he was trying to save time for.  He replied, "Why mumbly peg, if that is where your heart lies." He was saving time so we could enjoy little luxuries.

The title of this entry includes the Hokey Pokey.  I was lying in my bed singing Hokey Pokey in my head:  You put your whole self in, you put your whole self out, You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself about.  Do the Hokey Pokey, that's what it's all about."  And I suddenly asked.  is that what life is all about?  Life is a dance?

Shakespeare said life is a tale told by an idiot.  He also said it is a stage and we are merely players, with our entrances and our exits.

All in all, I prefer to  think of life as a Hokey Pokey, rather than sound and fury signifying nothing. 

And with that I got up and wrote this entry