Day 4 - 7 -- Time Here and There

Have you looked at the clock today? Do you know what time it is elsewhere? We have the 24 time zones to help us determine if we should make that long distance call now or later. Today is the 190th birthday of Sir Sanford Fleming, a Scottish born Canadian. He developed standard time so that each little town and city didn't set its own time. When they did it made it difficult to do business. I suppose this wouldn't have made much difference when few people traveled from one city to another with any regularity. Once they did, though, knowing the time in some sensible format surely would help. Flemng also proposed the 24 hour clock to avoid confusion between AM and PM. He played a major role in surveying for the Intercontinental railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. His likeness is forever bound in the famous CP Rail 'last spike' photo. He is standing directly behind Lord Strathcona (Donald Smith), who drove the last spike.

Time took on a major role for me today. I awoke 2 hours before the alarm and didn't get back to sleep. When I got home again after the exam, I had a late lunch and prepared slides for a Monday class, after which I promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours. I missed time to call another time zone since it was past the end of the work day there when I was up and moving again. I can plan to call the UK or Australia or the Pacific coast of North America since we have the standard times -- I just have to stay awake or not get deep into another task and find more time has passed  than I'd intended. <smile>.

The song for today has a few lines that might have been uppermost in Fleming's mind when he strove to fix the time anarchy that ruled in the late 19th century. Enjoy!

Time Won't Let Me -- The Outsiders