La Hora Nueva

After what I hoped was the last nasty snowfall of this season, I awoke on Sunday to find I lost an hour...

Now where did I put it... I know it's around here somewhere... If I could just remember when i last had it...

This daylight savings business never fails to dodge me right out; I'm wondering, how an they just do that? who are they anyway? this they with invisible intangible access to all my electronics? or is there one enormous system clock connected to channel 5 (or whatever channel your local listings appear on), my cell phone, oven, bedside radio.... weird, isn't it?

And it's weirder that we all just say okie-dokie, business as usual, they say to go forward or back and you say 'oh yes, just tell me how many seconds, minutes, hours, sir?!' like the sun really cares... it's up there blazing away on rotate, not even awares that we're scurrying about trying to catch up...

Now, in Nicaragua, there's a much more pragmatic understanding. After a few months living with a family in Neuva Guinea (un amigo costeno lo llamo 'el culo de diablo') time "fell back" and I foolishly went about changing my alarm clock and watch, and more importantly, started referring to time accordingly in conversation, making plans, etc. Here's what I encountered upon stating the time or making reference to a time (to meet, for example) "?La hora nueva o la hora vieja?"

-Literally translates to "The new hour or the old hour?" ... so, this is great, imagine every time you intend to meet someone or get ready to go somewhere you're wondering, did we agree on old time or new time? are they starting on old time or new time? And when inquiring about the time of day, you'd have better luck gazing up into the sky, because whoever you're asking, they run by the opposite of whatever you're requesting and an old man flapping his gums under a wilting cowboy hat is only too eager to give you an earful on why his choice is preferable to the other...

The 'old time, new time' phenomena helps me remember that really it doesn't matter what time the cellphone says and whether it differs vastly from the blinking numbers on the stove because the moment is relative, it here, there and nowhere, it is forward, backward and right now.

So if you were late yesterday, don't worry about it; tell them you're running on the old hour, seen???

peace jams