Daylight Savings Time (or specifically, the ending thereof) is kicking my butt.

Everybody talks about how happy they are that the time “falls back” and they got an extra hour of sleep. That doesn’t seem to be the case for early risers, or at least this early riser. I wake up most mornings around 5:15 or 5:30. I lay in bed a bit, and then get up and start my day. I make coffee. I check my emails. I do my daily Happy Color coloring page. Then I read until Bill gets up an hour or so later.

It doesn’t matter what time the clock says. Since changing time Sunday morning, my body wakes up when it thinks it’s 5 o’clock, which, of course, is actually 4 o’clock. Try as I might, I’m unable to go back to sleep. So I get up and do all those things I listed earlier, but now I wait longer for Bill to arise because his body is more cooperative than mine.

I can’t even blame it on the mornings being lighter. It isn’t light at 4 o’clock, but it isn’t light at 5 o’clock either. Never mind that we have black-out shades in our bedroom these days. My body just isn’t cooperating.

Wah. Wah. Wah. It will figure itself out.

As I recall, back in March, when daylight savings time went into effect, Congress was making noise about making DST permanent. What ever happened to that plan? Did they all get the extra hour of sleep Saturday/Sunday night and wake up in good moods, determined to think about the economy instead of daylight savings time? What rubbish.

Our niece Jessie and her fiance Rob had us over for dinner Sunday night. I’m thinking about 7-ish she said in her text. Yikes, I thought. Where does she think we live? Spain? But when I told Bill we were having dinner with Jess and Rob and it would be served at 7 o’clock, he took a much more mature attitude. We can pretend we’re grown-ups, he said.

However, Sunday afternoon I got a text from Jessie: I forgot that daylight savings time was a thing and so if you want to come by a little early because of the time jump and body clocks and all of that you’re certainly welcome to.

We said we would come at 6:30.

At 6 o’clock, it was pitch dark outside. It looked like it was midnight. I can’t tell you how it being so dark psychologically affected me. I simply couldn’t believe that it wasn’t bedtime. Nevertheless, we made it over to their house without issue, and enjoyed our dinner very much.

I’ve already voted, but I wish I knew if the people for whom I cast my vote were in favor of permanent daylight savings time. It might have made a difference.