20160313.0854

In most of the United States, today is Daylight Savings Day. A dreaded annual occurrence, it marks the occasion of setting clocks forward one hour for some reason few if any accurately remember, one which probably no longer applies to life as the prevailing images the US holds about itself is. I have to wonder if it is some kind of conspiracy to facilitate dismissals for cause, since many people who have to work today will be discombobulated by the time-shift, and others will still be adjusting to it tomorrow. I have also to note that I am aware that part of what we get for the adjustment now is a similar adjustment back one hour in around half a year. It is not worth it. We are being cheated, for while we may get the "time" back, we suffer a degradation to quality of life that is not amended later on. I join many therefore in thinking that the practice should be discontinued; it does no good and some harm, so there is no sense in maintaining it.

Even amid the time-shift, however, work continues. No new freelance order has yet come in, but it is the weekend, so I am not surprised. Motion towards grading is slow but observable; I have pulled down the files I need to assess, and I am already aware that a number of students are going to be losing points for not following directions. I cut a pretty detailed set of them, here (not bad for something done while the plumbing was malfunctioning spectacularly), and I emailed the students to advise them about said directions. There is little excuse for non-compliance. Other things are moving less obviously, but they are moving, and I am pleased by this. I should be able to get done all of what I need to get done on the week, and I will be happy to be able to move forward therefore. Maybe I can get far enough ahead that I need not worry about drafting certain documents for the rest of the term, which will ease no small number of burdens that are mine to carry.

I worry about such things, of course. I have no way not to do so. The Mrs. to a large extent, and Ms. 8 almost wholly, rely upon my efforts for their financial support, and I care greatly about their health and well-being. Consequently, I am motivated towards extravagance in my efforts to ensure their support, and I feel as if those efforts are only minimally effective. I am working three jobs and doing barely so well as I see people who have been in and out of jail and who have not "done the good things" receive for one job of work. That I question a number of my life choices therefore is not to be wondered at; I have clearly done something wrong, but I am unable to see what it is. I therefore do not know when it will next assail me and mine--but I know it is going to do so. Knowing that an attack (metaphorical, certainly, but it seems apt) will come but having no idea whence it will originate is enough to make most anybody worry, I think. Working harder or popping forward an hour will not allay it.