Subverting government mandates

"I don't mind so much giving the government a little of my money, but I hate giving them my time." So said my lovely ex-wife yesterday on the subject of daylight savings time. And I don't disagree, though I have to say I'm way more resentful about losing an hour of sleep than I am about losing just any old hour. Especially just as the days are getting longer and all.

And don't give me that business about getting it back in the fall. What are they doing with it in the meantime?? is what I want to know. Given what they do with the money they withhold from my pay, I can't imagine they're up to much good.

But this year I stumbled into a solution, I guess you could say. I forgot to set my clocks ahead before I went to sleep Saturday, and so when I woke up Sunday it was the same time it would have been if daylight savings time hadn't started. I didn't lose any sleep at all! I did set them all ahead in the afternoon sometime, but who the hell cares if I'm missing an hour of afternoon?

Yes I understand that the whole government-mandated time switch thing is completely arbitrary, especially for a person who doesn't really bother to get up at the same time every day, and has been known to spend entire weekends sleeping and taking naps. I would not have slept any less, really, if the time in my house had "changed" while I slept. I know nothing really changes when we move the clocks around.

But I feel somehow this time like I cheated the government. They can have my hour if they want it so damn bad, but they can't have an hour of my sleep.

The bastards.