April Fool!

Our neighborhood was fogbound this morning, so I took a little excursion to the eastern (sunnier) part of town--specifically, to the area south of AT&T Park. I left the house at 9:24 am, walked across the park to catch the N-Judah, and rode it almost to the end of the line. I checked my iPod when I got off; it was 10:24. I walked down the waterfront to Mariposa, then west to Potrero Hill (got a very good but overpriced quichelet at a tiny bakery on 8th between Connecticut and Missouri), then back via 16th and the UCSF Mission Bay Campus. I checked my iPod again as I was approaching 4th & King, and it was 11:24; I had been walking for exactly an hour.

As I was getting onto the N-Judah platform, I noticed a big outdoor clock that said 12:25. That's when it hit me: my iPod has been an hour behind ever since we went on daylight savings time.

Somehow, I had lost an hour along the way.

I knew it couldn't have taken two hours to get from home to AT&T Park, so I must have left at 10:24 instead of 9:24. I went over and over every detail of my morning, from the time I got up (6:17 am) to the time I left the house, and I couldn't reconcile that either. Did I just...what? Black out? Was I so absorbed in something that an hour passed without my noticing it?

Finally, it occurred to me: today must be the non-start of daylight savings time--or more precisely, the day it started in imaginary Microsoft world, where acts of Congress are powerless to change it. My iPod must have auto-updated, and that clock I saw must have auto-updated after having already been updated for the real start of DST.

It was plausible--more plausible than my having a blackout--but I couldn't know for sure until I got home and checked the cable box. Until then, every time source was potentially suspect.

As I was walking the last block to my house, a guy hailed me from across the street and asked me if I knew what time it was. I managed not to break out laughing, and gave him my best guess.

When I got home, the cable box confirmed my hypothesis--as did Jody, who had just finished re-resetting the VCR. A legion of programmers and the United States Congress had teamed up to play a very disturbing April Fool's Day prank on me.

Update: On the other hand, I have less to complain about than some people, who had to deal with the problems early DST created for computer systems all over the country.