Tuesday Tidbits: GOT TIME?

Once upon a time, time was simple. The location of the sun in the sky told one when to get up, when to eat, when to go to bed, and so on. This was solar time. But as people in regions and then around the world became more connected, time needed to be more standard.

This past weekend, we in the U.S. turned our clocks ahead one hour to be on Daylight Saving Time. I’m not a fan of Springing Forward in the spring nor Falling Back in the fall. I wish we would pick a time and stick with it.

When I was young, I used to think that time zones were simple. That the world was divided up into twenty-four equal one-hour sections with invisible lines. Not so. Since each country determines their own time zones and dividing lines, things have gotten a little messy. Not one single dividing line is straight. They look like this.

And feel like this.

Some time zones around the world don’t all differ by full hours. Some are by half hours and quarter hours. That would be confusing.

 

Confusing to say the least!

Australia has four time zones part of the year and six during Daylight Saving Time.

Russia should have eleven time zones but only has nine, and they aren’t even sequential.

But France wins with the most time zones of any country, a whopping twelve! This is mostly due to various territories around the world.

China, on the other hand, has ONE time zone. Yep. Just ONE across over three thousand miles. In 1912, the government announced there would be five time zones. In 1949, when the communist party came into power, the chairman decide to have one time zone across the country to strengthen national unity. This was call Beijing time. Can you imagine the whole of the United States was on Washington DC time? Places that have hours from 9-to-5 on the East coast would really be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the West coast. That would really mess with Daylight Saving Time. There probably wouldn’t be a need for it, would be my guess.

Back to China. If you step over the boarder from the western most point of China into Afghanistan you will travel back in time three and a half hours in a few steps. Who said time travel wasn’t possible?

The International Date Line opposite Greenwich Mean Time is a whole lot of mess.

Between some of the Pacific islands changing hand to different countries or doing most of their trade with one country in the past and now doing most of their trade with another country now, this line has become seriously skewed. Instead of having time that falls between plus and minus twelve hours of Greenwich Mean Time, there are islands that are plus thirteen and plus fourteen. And instead of there being two days across the world, at some times during the day, there are three. So if you planned it right, I wonder if you could live three Fridays in a row? Or three Mondays? Yikes! You could celebrate Christmas Day more than once or ring in the new year for a second time.

Time can be so weird. Especially when people get involved and mess the lines. If given the option of a one-world time or what we currently have, I’d take the twisted lines of our current time zones.

UPDATE: I know I was missing for a couple of weeks. We were dealing with family crises. My mother-in-law was in the hospital not doing well, so my hubby flew out for a week and a half. While he was there, she passed away. I stayed back home to care for our geriatric cats who have medical issues and need daily care. Then his father fell and ended up in the hospital. He’s doing all right. And during all that, my mom was in the hospital. She out and doing well but has some issues. Hopefully all will settle down and things can get back to a little bit of normal.

THIMBLES AND THREADS: 4 Love Stories Are Quilted Into Broken Lives

Love Stitched into Four Women’s Lives

Enjoy four historical romances that celebrate the arts of sewing and quilting. When four women put needle and thread to fabric, will their talents lead to love? #thimblesandthreadscollection

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“Bygones” by Mary Davis

Texas, 1884

Drawn to the new orphan boy in town, Tilly Rockford soon became the unfortunate victim of a lot of Orion Dunbar’s mischievous deeds in school. Can Tilly figure out how to truly forgive the one who made her childhood unbearable? Now she doesn’t even know she holds his heart. Can this deviant orphan-train boy turned man make up for the misdeeds of his youth and win Tilly’s heart before another man steals her away?

Other stories in this collection:

“The Bridal Shop” by Grace Hitchcock, “Mending Sarah’s Heart” by Suzanne Norquist, and “Binding Up Wounds” by Liz Tolsma

THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT (Book 2 in the Quilting Circle series)

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Can a patient love win her heart?

As Isabelle Atwood’s romance prospects are turning in her favor, a family scandal derails her dreams. While making a quilt for her own hope chest, Isabelle’s half-sister becomes pregnant out of wedlock and Isabelle--always the unfavored daughter--becomes the family sacrifice to save face. Despite gaining the attention of a handsome rancher, her parents are pressuring her to marry a man of their choosing to rescue her sister’s reputation. A third suitor waits silently in the wings, hoping for his own chance at love. Isabelle ends up with three marriage proposals, but this only further confuses her decision.

A handsome rancher, a stranger, and an unseen suitor are all waiting for an answer.  Isabelle loves her sister, but will she really allow herself to be manipulated into a marriage without love? Will Isabelle capitulate and marry the man her parents wish her to, or will she rebel and marry the man they don’t approve of? Or will the man leaving her secret love poems sweep her off her feet?

Coming June 2020! The Damsel's Intent book 3 in the Quilting Circle series. 

A hermit comes down from the mountains to snag a husband.

HEARTBEATS IN TIME – 5 books of Old West Christian Romance (4 novels and

4 novellas) by 7 bestselling, award-winning authors, including my book, The Widow’s Plight. You'll love these 8 unique stories of love! Get it here: https://amzn.to/2VzRBoI

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The Widow’s Plight (Book 1 in the Quilting Circle series) by Mary Davis
A single mother steps out of the shadows of abuse and into the sunshine. But will a secret clouding her past cost her the man she loves?
Finding Love In Last Chance, California by Miralee Ferrell
Dreams of My Heart by Barbara Scott
Hills of Nevermore by Janalyn Voigt
Heart of a Cowboy Novella Collection--four Old West romances by Susan Page Davis, Miralee Ferrell, Yvonne Lehman, and Vickie McDonough

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS s a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her 2018 titles include; "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, Courting Her Amish Heart, The Widow’s Plight, Courting Her Secret Heart , “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , and Courting Her Prodigal Heart . 2019 titles include The Daughter's Predicament and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-four years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

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Tuesday Tidbits: WHAT TIME IS IT, MR. FOX?

This was a game we played when I was young. The object was to reach the front where “Mr. Fox” stood without getting caught. Similar in some respects to “Red Light, Green Light”. The group at the starting line called out their question “What time is it, Mr; Fox?” To which the “Fox”, who had his/her back to the rest of the group, would respond with a time, like “5 o’clock”or “2 o’clock”, or “11 o’clock”. Then everyone had to take that many steps toward Mr. Fox, the question would be repeated with another time given until Mr. Fox responded with “Time to eat you.”, turned, and chased everyone back to the beginning line. If you were caught, then you became Mr. Fox.

The trick was to gauge how big of steps to take. If you took too small of steps, you couldn’t get to the front first and win. Too big, and you could be too close to Mr. Fox and get caught. And the trick for Mr. Fox was to make everyone take enough steps to get everyone close enough so he/she could tag someone.

So why am I telling you about this game? Because like “What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?” where the time was ever changing, so too have our clocks with Daylight Saving Time. It messes with me twice a year, both for “Spring Forward” and “Fall Back.” But “Fall Back” is easier. I do like my sleep. For the following week, I’m trying to figure out what time it is. There is always a caveat when asking the time. “It’s 3, but it feel like 2 to our bodies.” “It’s 6, but it feel like 5 to our bodies.” “It’s 11, but it feel like 10 to our bodies.” So which time is it. For a while, it’s both.

My eyes feel like sandpaper, scratching down my eyes. This time I woke up Monday with one eye severely bloodshot, and it hurts a lot. I also have a head ache. Not sure that’s because of missing an hour of sleep or being confused over what time it really is and my brain trying to figure it out.

So why do we have DST? I heard that back in the day, it was to conserve candles. Then to conserve energy. But, with our 24/7 world society, is it really saving anything? What we don’t use at one end of the day, don’t we use it at the other?

I have also heard that we still have DST because it’s safer for school children not having to go to school or come home in the dark or something like that. But when we change the clocks some children can still go to or come home from school in the dark.

I have also heard that accidents (car, home, work, etc.) increase the week after the time change. They know this because of the increase in insurance claims.

Hawaii doesn’t change their clock because they basically have 12/12 split between daylight and night, so what would be the point. Arizona also doesn’t change their clocks. I’m not sure why. But the Navajo Nation inside of Arizona does observe DST. There are various U.S. Territories who also don’t observe DST.

If you missed my post on some history of DST, here is a link to that post.

Last year in March, in the week leading up to the change, I decided I would go to bed ten minutes earlier each night until I was going to bed an hour earlier and get up ten minutes earlier each morning. Then when the clocks changed, I’d be on the right time. Nice plan, but the implementation of it didn’t quite work out. For one, one of my favorite shows comes on past my bed time so I’m artificially staying up too late that night anyway and it can through off the whole week if I’m not careful. So then I sleep in a little the following morning to make up for that. Then there are the occasional, accidental naps during the week that mess up getting to sleep at night. It was a little easier to adjust but was still challenging.

I wish we could pick a time and stick with it. I don’t care which. I’d be happy with either.

My Cat refuses to participate in DST. Cats are smart.

NEW!

The MISSADVENTURE BRIDES Collection

Love Is One of Life’s Greatest Adventures 
Seven daring damsels don’t let the norms of their eras hold them back. Along the way these women attract the attention of men who admire their bravery and determination, but will they let love grow out of the adventures?

Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure, a 1904 road-trip
Zola Calkin sets out on an adventure to be the first woman to drive across the country. Will the journalist tasked to report her presumed failure sabotage her efforts? Or will he steal her heart?

Released December 1, 2018

COURTING HER PRODIGAL HEART

Mother-to-Be’s Amish Homecoming... Pregnant and alone, Dori Bontrager is sure her Amish kin won’t welcome her—or the child she’s carrying—into the community. And she’s determined that her return won’t be permanent. As soon as she finds work, she’ll leave again. But with her childhood friend Eli Hochstetler insisting she and her baby belong here, will Dori’s path lead back to the Englisher world…or into Eli’s arms?
(Book 3 in the Prodigal Daughters series released January 1, 2019)

RECENT!

THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT ~ A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This is book 1 in the Quilting Circle series.
Washington State, 1893
     When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?
     Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in  town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother.
     Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?
THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT is now available in ebook and paperback.

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS s a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her 2018 titles include; "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection (January), Courting Her Amish Heart (March), The Widow’s Plight (July), Courting Her Secret Heart (September), “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection (December), and Courting Her Prodigal Heart (January 2019). She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-four years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

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Tuesday Tidbits: IT’S ABOUT TIME

Several years ago, I was writing a time travel novel. Because I had two timelines running simultaneously, I needed to outline them so I kind of knew what was going on and when. My heroine got trapped ninety years in the past and had to solve a murder before she became the new victim.

In the present, the hero was trying to figure out how to get her back before the murder. He went over to his best-friend’s place to do the math. I had their conversation all figured out until his friend said, “I assume you’ve figured Daylight Saving Time into your calculations.”

Where did that come from? I certainly hadn’t thought about Daylight Saving Time (DST). One of the things I love about writing is that my characters often surprise me.

I jumped online and did a quick search: “When did DST start?”

A simple question.

But not so simple of an answer.

If asked who invented Daylight Saving Time, what would your answer be? A lot of people would say Benjamin Franklin. He is credited for inventing it. But did he? Let’s take a step back through time. (Pun intended.)

Ancient civilizations had a strange relationship with time. They divided the daylight hours into twelve equal parts. So, in the spring, those parts (or hours) got progressively longer (one could get more done in an “hour”), and in the autumn, they got shorter (less done in and “hour”). The Romans used water clocks and had different scales for different months. At one time of year, an “hour” could be forty-four minutes and at another seventy-five. Sounds like higher math to me.

In 1784, Benjamin Franklin wrote a satirical essay on how the Parisians could save money and candles. He suggested the daylight could be better utilized by rising one hour earlier in the morning. No mention of altering time or changing clocks.

The “invention” of DST came much later by two British men almost at the same time, scientists George Vernon Hudson and builder William Willett. In 1895, Hudson proposed changing clocks two hours in October and back in March. It didn’t catch on. Ten years later, he suggested it again, but this time changing clocks ahead twenty-minutes each Sunday in April and then reversing the process on the Sundays in September. That meant changing clocks eight times a year. Twice is more than enough for me.

Though Britain didn’t embrace this idea, in 1908, residents of Ontario, Canada were the first to utilize DST. Several other locations in Canada followed suit.

On April 30, 1916, Germany and Austria began Daylight Saving Time to save resources during WWI. Other European countries quickly jumped on the time-saving bandwagon that same year; Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, Tasmania, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and Britain. In 1917, Australia and Newfoundland joined the DST crowd.

DST was formally adopted in the U.S. on March 19, 1918. The law also set standard time zones.

Yes! I had my answer.

But . . .

Because of its unpopularity, Daylight Saving Time was revoked after the war. The federal government left it up to states and localities to decide if they wanted to utilize DST or not. Some states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island kept DST as well as cities like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia (a.k.a. “City Time”). But this meant, some cities would have DST but not the whole state? So, you could be in one time standing in one of these cities, but take a step to the left outside the city limits and you suddenly time traveled an hour.

None of this helped me. I still didn’t know if the part of the country my story was set in had DST or not. Nor if the town I modeled my town after did or not. I was left scratching my head.

Then along came WWII and a standardized Daylight Saving Time was instituted year-round from February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945 and called “War Time.”

From 1945 to 1966, Daylight Saving Time was once again a free-for-all left up to each individual location to decide. Each different place could choose not only if they would have DST but when it would start and stop. This caused a lot of confusion for the TV and radio broadcasters as well as transportation like trains, buses, and commercial flight schedules. Transportation and broadcasting companies had to publish new schedules every time a state or city started or stopped DST.

There was even a thirty-five-mile stretch of highway from Moundsville, W.V. to Steubenville, Ohio where a bus driver and the passengers passed through seven distinctive time zones. Seven!

So, if a train left Chicago at two o’clock and traveled fifty miles an hour in any direction for fifty miles, what time would it arrive? Um . . . two o’clock? Did Scotty beam it there? I’m confused. I never liked those train math word problems.

On April 12, 1966, the U.S. federal government signed into law the Uniform Time Act. Whew. Finally, some sanity. More or less. Hawaii and Arizona don’t participate in DST, but the Navajo Nation in Arizona does while the Hopi Reservation, which is surrounded by the Navajo Nation, doesn’t. I would be all kinds of time challenged there.

On March 5, 2018, Florida passed the Sunshine Protection Act, keeping them on Daylight Saving Time year-round.

In the end, I did like I usually do in all my fiction, I made it up. After all, the town was fictional so its time could be as well. If anyone is wondering where to get my time travel story, sadly it’s caught in a time warp and hasn’t been published yet but hopefully at some point in the future.

Or the past?

Isn’t history fun!

NEW!

THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT ~ A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This is book 1 in the Quilting Circle series.
Washington State, 1893
     When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?
     Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother.
     Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?
THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT is now available in ebook and paperback.


COURTING HER SECRET HEART
A Prodigal Daughters story, Book 2

Caught between two worlds…Deborah Miller lives a double life as an Amish woman—and a fashion model! All photography is forbidden in her Plain community, so she must keep her job a secret. But when Amos Burkholder starts helping at her family’s farm, hiding the truth from him is impossible. And soon she must choose between the Englisher world of modeling and the Amish man she’s come to love.

Book 3 in the Prodigal Daughters series due to release January 2019, COURTING HER PRODIGAL HEART
#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS is a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January, Courting Her Amish Heart in March, The Widow’s Plight in July, Courting Her Secret Heart September, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-four years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

Newsletter  Blog   FB  FB Readers Group   Amazon   GoodReads   BookBub