Time Zones
Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 10:41 am
Time is an interesting concept. Many people have problems with time. They either have too much time or not enough time. There is a saying where we live amongst many American Indians, and I happen to have the heritage, but not much Indian blood percentage. Anyway the saying is "Indian time is anytime," which typically means an Indian can show up early or late. It is interesting that when I was substitute teaching in the 1990s an Indian school was the only school that I taught at where I had to clock in to work, and that was because they had so much trouble getting the Indian teachers and other school workers to show up on time. When I say they, I mean Indians, because they were running the place, and they had that problem too, but it was so difficult to keep the place functioning that those Indians who had time problems themselves had to enforce the time issue. Another saying is that I will be back in a minute. But a minute for Indians can mean one hour, a few hours, or even a week, and it is still an "Indian minute!" My grandmother was one quarter Indian, so even though we don't have much Indian blood in us, because of our heritage and being around Indians a lot, our daughter is married to one of them, we are affected by their culture which is not bad, just different.
It is interesting that there are four time zones in the U.S.A. which means that the East Coast is three hours ahead of us. When we are getting ready for bed East Coast people have already been in bed for three hours. When we need to call a business that has a closing time, we have to call early in the afternoon, or all the employees are gone. We can get up three hours before our store time, and call a business on the East Coast and they will be working during their business hours already. When I was a little boy we didn't have daylight savings time, but now we do so that is further complicated by that factor. Not all states in the U.S. have daylight savings time, and right off the top of my head I can't remember which one do, and which ones do not.
When you, or my wife's brother in the Philippines are enjoying a shared holiday we have not gotten there yet. I have heard the time difference between us and the Philippines given as 14 hours, but that s further complicated by the different times zones here as well as by daylight savings time. It seems strange sometimes to me that I am the only one on this forum, and that is because when it is in the middle of my day here, it is in the middle of your night there. So about the only time you and I are on at the same time is at the beginning of my day, and at the end of your day. So you see me coming and going, and I see you coming and going, but we don't meet in the middle much unless you or I is sleep deprived, and that can't happen much, or for long periods of time.
I made the mistake of telling our granddaughter that we have free bandwidth from 12 midnight until 6 in the morning, and now we can't get her to go to bed because she wants to download music or movies in the night, which is not a big problem now since she is out of school for the summer, but when school starts that can't happen.
Presently here it is 9:27 a.m., and in the Philippines it is 12:27 a.m. the following day. That is a 13 hour difference affected by the time zone we live in and daylight savings time. This all seems very intriguing. If you are up you are missing your sleep, and I am in the middle of my morning. If I kept my regular sleeping schedule, and arrived in the Philippines now I wouldn't care to sleep,but I would want to sleep while you were up for your day, until I aclimated to the time you are keeping, then we would be in sync.
It is interesting that there are four time zones in the U.S.A. which means that the East Coast is three hours ahead of us. When we are getting ready for bed East Coast people have already been in bed for three hours. When we need to call a business that has a closing time, we have to call early in the afternoon, or all the employees are gone. We can get up three hours before our store time, and call a business on the East Coast and they will be working during their business hours already. When I was a little boy we didn't have daylight savings time, but now we do so that is further complicated by that factor. Not all states in the U.S. have daylight savings time, and right off the top of my head I can't remember which one do, and which ones do not.
When you, or my wife's brother in the Philippines are enjoying a shared holiday we have not gotten there yet. I have heard the time difference between us and the Philippines given as 14 hours, but that s further complicated by the different times zones here as well as by daylight savings time. It seems strange sometimes to me that I am the only one on this forum, and that is because when it is in the middle of my day here, it is in the middle of your night there. So about the only time you and I are on at the same time is at the beginning of my day, and at the end of your day. So you see me coming and going, and I see you coming and going, but we don't meet in the middle much unless you or I is sleep deprived, and that can't happen much, or for long periods of time.
I made the mistake of telling our granddaughter that we have free bandwidth from 12 midnight until 6 in the morning, and now we can't get her to go to bed because she wants to download music or movies in the night, which is not a big problem now since she is out of school for the summer, but when school starts that can't happen.
Presently here it is 9:27 a.m., and in the Philippines it is 12:27 a.m. the following day. That is a 13 hour difference affected by the time zone we live in and daylight savings time. This all seems very intriguing. If you are up you are missing your sleep, and I am in the middle of my morning. If I kept my regular sleeping schedule, and arrived in the Philippines now I wouldn't care to sleep,but I would want to sleep while you were up for your day, until I aclimated to the time you are keeping, then we would be in sync.