What’s Up With That?

Falling Back

So it’s that time again when we humans set our clocks back an hour, which for some people disrupts their lives. I’ll be 70 in a couple weeks so Daylight Savings Time is no big deal. 

I didn’t even know this event had taken place until I was planning my astronomy session for tonight. Before an astronomy session the  first thing I do is check the weather and viewing conditions on a website named Clear Sky Chart.

If the seeing conditions are at least average, I then plan my session using a program called Sky Safari. I check for interesting objects before I even set up my telescope to make sure the viewing will be good.

Looking at the southern sky, I noticed that Saturn and Jupiter were too low in the sky at 6:30 PM when the sky should just be starting to get dark. Aha! The time must have changed.

Saturn and Jupiter don’t care what “time” it is. They orbit the sun at a predictable rate and course. Humans “falling back” or “springing forward” means nothing.

Being retired, I don’t need a clock to function. I can look outside and figure out when the sun will rise or set. I don’t watch much TV and don’t have any favorite programs, so a clock is worthless. Sometimes I have appointments, such as my doctor. I just set a reminder in my phone that reminds me a day ahead and then two hours beforehand.

Falling back, time-wise, has zero importance to us. We have a bigger falling back problem.

Falling Back to Pre-COVID Times

Here we are, nearly 7 months after much of the country went into lock-down, with exponential growth in cases. Europe is shutting down again, and we will follow. How did this happen?

Because people can’t deal with simple concepts as social distancing and wearing a facemask, we are now in worse shape than ever when it comes to infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. It is going to get worse.

Apparently too many can’t deal with having to stay at home. They have to go out and socialize. Many are suffering psychological issues because they are stuck at home with family. I find this absolutely incredible. Now, don’t get me wrong, some are facing difficult financial issues. Parents with young children at home are stressed over working at home and trying to balance the educational needs of their kids.

From what I have read, much of the stress some are suffering is due to boredom. They have binge-watched Netflix and spent countless hours on social media. They have run out of things to occupy their time. Here is good news: intelligent people don’t get bored.

Use Your Intellect

Humans are different than animals because of our superior intellect. Intellect is a gift, but we have to use our intellect — we have to think. If one chooses to wade through life without thinking, that is, using our intellect, one can easily become bored. A boring life isn’t a good life. So how does one eliminate boredom in these difficult times?

Take an Inventory of Your Time

I touched on this subject way back in April in this post, Lockdown or Liberty: How to Deal With Stay-in-Place Orders, especially towards the end of the post in a discussion of maximizing personal time at home.

Time is fleeting. We should consider time as a fixed inventory. If we waste a chunk of time it is gone forever. Consider your time as a bank, a time bank so to speak. The concept was detailed in Managing Your Recreation Inventory.

If you anticipate another lockdown in your life, or if your free time is restricted to staying at home, take an inventory of what you have done over the past 7 months with your free time. If you calculate how much free time you have had, you might find much of it was squandered on TV or social media. Ask yourself, “What do I have to show for my time?”

Now consider what you would have done, if you had planned on spending all of this time at home. Would you have planned at home projects, personal improvement, or something else? Are there lessons to be learned?

In this time could you have learned a new language, learned a new skill such as playing a piano or keyboard, or devised an exercise plan to get into or stay in shape? Have you gained unwanted pounds? I think you get the idea.

Create a plan to do constructive things to replace boredom.

How Are We Doing?

Just fine, thank you.

Joyce is still recovering from her broken ankle suffered on our last camping trip. It will be another month before she is completely recovered from the surgery, and she won’t be able to walk until then. She has also kept busy.

Hopefully we’ll be able to get out camping again before the end of the year.

I’ve been busy. Much time spent on astronomy and upgrading some of my equipment. Most nights don’t find me in front of the TV or staring at a electric screen, but looking out at the cosmos.

Some upgrades to our camper and routine maintenance have been completed, along with cleaning and a little bit of maintenance on my backpacking gear.

I have a ten-year reading plan, which is comprised of a long list of books. That list has been shortened time-wise and will be completed in two years, three years ahead of time. Plus I’ve had time to read several books not on my list.

I have been learning to play a keyboard, but have kind of put it on hold, instead studying astrophotography concepts, which requires learning several new computer programs. Especially time consuming has been learning how to use Affinity Photo. Affinity Photo is very powerful and similar to Photo Shop, but it only costs $50 versus the insane cost to upgrade my ancient Adobe Creative Suite 2 for Windows.

There hasn’t been time to work on my stamp collection, which is a good thing in the sense there aren’t enough hours in the day to engage in productive endeavors.

We’re not bored at all!!