Red October

I was writing something for work on Tuesday. It was a very simple thing, but I just couldn’t get it right. I couldn’t summon the right words. But all writing is re-writing; and after a few minutes of fighting with words and sentences and semi-colons, I had a draft that I could live with.

*****
Earlier that same morning, I had wondered why it was still so dark when I was getting ready for work. With the return to Eastern time and the earlier sunset, I thought to myself, we should have had an earlier sunrise and thus earlier daylight. I left the house with my son at 7:15 and it was still almost dark. What’s happening, I wondered? Is there some environmental phenomenon that’s causing extended darkness following the time change? Have the world’s latitudes shifted in some way?

By now, you’re probably looking at a calendar and seeing what it took me two days to figure out, which is that the fall time change didn’t actually happen last Sunday at all. It happens this coming Sunday.

I worry about myself sometimes. The left side of my face is a little bit droopy and I’m apparently also a little bit of an idiot. Maybe I had a stroke and and I didn’t know it.  Maybe I’ve had a series of transient ischemic attacks and the after-effects have left me unable to tell the difference between one week and the next.

*****
The rest of that day and the following day proceeded without incident. I finished my work without undue mental strain, and I didn’t confuse one day or one week for the next, and I collected myself. I got a grip. A stroke, for crying out loud. I mean, really.

*****
Still, I should have figured out the time change thing a lot faster than I did. If the morning darkness didn’t clue me in, then the ride to work should have. On the morning after the time change, my husband normally goes through the house and sets all of the analog clocks, and the digital ones reset themselves automatically. But he doesn’t reset my car clock unless he happens to ride in my car. And left to me, of course, that clock will stay on Daylight Savings Time for the next six months. Two very big clues--the morning darkness and the car clock--not to mention that not one single person or news report or social media post had said a word about re-setting clocks. I don’t know what I was thinking.

******
Yesterday, we had a training class, on a semi-technical topic. And I finished my practice exercises--correctly--before almost anyone else in the class. So maybe I’m not the sharpest proverbial knife in the proverbial drawer, but I’m not an irredeemable idiot just yet.

Wait, is irredeemable a word?

What is happening to me?

*****
OK, it’s Thursday now, a very quiet Halloween. Normally, we have lots of trick-or-treaters, but the weather’s not good, so traffic is light. The kids who show up are making bank, candy-wise. I’m throwing huge handfuls out there, scattering candy largesse like there’s no tomorrow. I’m making it rain. It’s a damn free-for-all.

The Washington Nationals won the World Series last night, and we’re watching a replay of Game 7 as we wait for the next doorbell ring. This was one of the most intense, high-drama World Series I’ve ever seen and it’s fun to watch again when we know that it ends happily. The 2019 Nationals are one of the all-time great teams. It won’t be the same next year. We might lose Anthony Rendon or Stephen Strasburg (my favorite player). Ryan Zimmerman might retire. Gerardo Parra might change his walk-up song. They’ll still be a great team, but they won’t be the very same team that won the first World Series in Washington in over 90 years. It’s been a great pleasure to watch them.

*****
Almost 9 PM, and we still have a lot of candy to give away. The next kid who shows up is going home with untold candy riches. And I’m going to bed early. I’ve been up late watching baseball; and of course, I never did get the extra hour of sleep.