Alarm Clocks

There are a couple unfortunate things about daylight savings time in the fall. The most obvious is the time change itself which requires a bit of an adjustment to get back to a normal sleeping schedule. Unfortunately, with winter approaching and darkness surrounding me as I leave work, it is "normal" for me to want to crawl into bed at 5:30 pm. I have freakishly convincing circadian rhythms that make it difficult to accomplish anything after dark. I force myself to cook and eat (because my stomach is also rather convincing) and by 8:30 I am in shut down mode.

The cats also have difficulty adjusting to the time change. They may not be able to read numbers on a clock, but they internally know when it is 10 pm and 6 am. When we set that clock back, those feline alarm clocks set into action promptly at 5 am. Sasha and Lucy take alternate days sounding the alarm, running around frantically, scratching at the door, jumping on the bed, and any other thing they can pull out of their bag of kitty tricks. I spend the next hour trying to get them to be quiet, trying to catch them (but they know better and run and hide), and trying desperately to get more sleep. 

Latino thought it would be a good idea to show them that the time had changed, so he picked up Sasha and held her in front of the clock, saying, "Look, Sasha. Look at the clock. The time changed." She just stared with her eyes crossed, not comprehending. I asked if he was going to show Lucy the clock too. He said she would probably bite him, but he did eventually try. She did not bite, but she did growl. This will take quite a bit of practice to get them to tell time. Fortunately, they seem to be finally adjusting.

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