Have you heard the call for, “no more daylight savings time,” from the masses which includes me and probably all the way back to my great-great-grandparents? Spring after spring. Fall after fall. To no avail since again soon the time will change, falling back. Soon we can rest assured we will have the delightful chore of making 2 a.m. magically become 1 a.m. I would guess that most of us will climb and stretch to change wall clocks. Poke and beep, changing clocks on stoves and microwaves. But. Yes, a time elapsed “but.” The most frustrating clock to change? The one in the car!
There must be a secret hidden society of clock changing minions who meet every so often to discuss the most confusing and unintelligible way to have to change clocks in cars and trucks. Oh, my stars.
Over my grown-up years I think I may have owned over a dozen vehicles and no two had the same way to change the clocks. Not only that but I truly think the clocks somehow change the way they are to be changed from the spring ahead to the fall back. You would think I’d remember how to change from spring to fall. I mean come on, it’s only six months. No wait, it WAS every six months. Now it seems the time change is not every six months. This year it was in March and will come around again in November. Yes, March and November. That’s eight or four months from time change to time change.
When did that happen? Where was I? Was it always that way? Nope. I remember it being every six months. Maybe it was just me. It just makes sense, if you are going to go back and forth, to do it every six months. I admit though that sometimes it takes me six months to re-learn how to change my vehicle’s clock.
Each time the time changes all of our car clocks need to be scooted up or dragged back. In doing that I cannot be the only one who has to go to the owner’s manual to re-learn just which buttons to push. I do have a few friends who refuse to change the clocks in their vehicles. I completely understand that. It wouldn’t work for me, however. I’m too much of a time slave. I strive to be on time for stuff. If I didn’t change my clocks in my vehicles I would forever be very, very late or way too early depending on the time of the year. It would drive me nuts to try to remember if the time was wrong or if the time was right. I know, short drive huh?
I have a car and a truck. The clocks in both are changed in different ways. One is all about getting to the main menu. Then to the clock menu then the change the clock menu then the change the clock forward or change the clock back menu. By that time, I just need the drink menu!
The other vehicle is quite easy. Find the teeny tiny button just to the right of the radio that as an “H” on it and next to that there is a teeny tiny button that has an “M” on it. Now let’s just think about that “M” button. The time changes direct us to change the hour so I see the reason for the “H” button. When the time is changed, I hold down the hour button for either 13 hours or only 11 hours. Wait I have to count to make sure that is right. Add one, carry four months, subtract any patience I might have left over on my one nerve that hasn’t exploded… I’ve never used the “M” button.
All I really know is that if for some unimaginable reason if I ever lose my owner’s manual, I will never be able to change the clocks in my vehicles. That lends to the fact that I have heard starting on some cars this year and virtually all cars next year the owner’s manual book will not be happily living in the glove compartments of cars and trucks. Oh, that is not going to be pretty for many people I know. OK for people of the age that knows all the cool things that are available in the owner’s manual. I read somewhere recently where in years gone by manuals gave instructions on how to change the oil, but now you can see this in owner’s manuals, “DO NOT drink the liquid in the battery.” Yes, changing the clock is the least of our worries my friends.
Trina Machacek lives in Eureka. Her books are available online wherever you buy books or email her at itybytrina@yahoo.com to buy a signed copy.
