I am changing as I get older.  I have always loved losing the hour of daylight in the fall..it is part of my love for fall, but I have found myself annoyed at the early darkness this week.  It was beautiful outside and when I walked out of work it was already dark...we took a walk when we got home but it felt like it was 10pm.

I have never been affected by the lack of sunshine or getting dark early, but that may change this year.  I see the sun for about an hour in the morning and then I am in the weather center all day.  I eat lunch between weathercasts on the noon show and then get office stuff and forecasting down from 1 until 3pm before our next newscasts begin.  I rarely leave work, or even step outside to get some fresh air.  What makes it worse, the weather center does not have a window for some natural light.  The only windows we have are the 3 tower cam monitors showing us conditions around SE Wisconsin.  So when I walk out of work after 5pm and it is already dark, it is a bit depressing.

It also gets in the way of getting yard work done.  I can't mow the lawn in the morning since the grass is still wet and I don't want to mow at 6:30am...that would make the neighbors happy.  My yard needed to be mowed and I was not able to do it last weekend with the bad weather so I had to figure something out...and I did.

Wednesday evening when I got home from work it was still in the 60s so I decided to mow before the rain came on Thursday and the cold and snow by tonight and the weekend.  I turned all the spotlights on and then turned my trucks headlights on and pointed it at the lawn.  Perfect!  I was the Midnight Mower...well  more like the 6pm Mower.  It was very weird, but effective.  I am sure my neighbors are now convinced that I am crazy.

I did the front and the sides but the back was too dark..and I was getting hungry.  I finished the backyard Thursday morning before work since the lawn was dry.  My yard work is finished and let me toot my own horn...I did an amazing job of mowing in the dark,,,,not one missed spot.  I might be a better mower in the dark than I am in the day.  Maybe I need to strap some spot lights on my lawn mower?

Finally, a few years ago the weekend we gained an hour meant another hour in the bar or club...now it means another hour of sleep.  I got that hour of sleep Saturday night but the rest of the week has been a struggle.  I am not sleeping well.  We stay up until 10...which is really 11 (so we are more tired than usual), but then I am getting up in the middle of the night a few times and we have been getting up before 6 since Ali always gets up around 7 (daylight saving time).  She has been very early all week.  I love hearing her running down the hall and jumping on our bed and shouting "Good Morning", but this week has been a struggle to sleep and I just want to roll over.  This time change thing really messes up the internal clock, but soon we will be adjusted and all will be good.