2024 Life Logs, Day 322: Monday Workday
Date: Monday, November 18, 2024
Weather: Sunny and Warmer; High Temp 60, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
It was a ‘no jacket needed’ weather day which was nice. But until I went to pick Ollie up at 2:45, I spent the whole day on my computer trying to catch up on things. I got a lot done, but I need another day. Then after I picked up Ollie, I spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen. I am still at Heather and Jed’s as they are at Town Meeting. Sam had a class in Hyannis tonight that is just now ending, so when I know he is home safely I will go home. Town Meeting could go until midnight, so once everyone is bed, I’ll head home.
We had an early dinner as Ollie had to be at a School Committee meeting at 5:45 pm to be part of a presentation with other members of the 7th grade engineering class. There were about 12 students who made short presentations. The students each made car bodies to hold the exact same motor and then competed to see what designs were fastest. Ollie’s part of the presentation was to explain which of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Massachusetts standards they addressed in this project. I was very proud of him for speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear and appearing to be so self-assured. But he told me afterwards that although he likes making presentations, he still gets nervous. I assured him that we all do.
Yesterday at our early Thanksgiving dinner I said that I was thankful for grandchildren. Today I am thankful for historians like Heather Cox Richardson. I read her daily blog and learn something new from her every day. Last night’s blog was about the year 1883 when the new system of five standardized time zones across the United States came into being. Fifty years earlier, prior to the 1830s, most people lived by the rhythms of the sun. But as factories developed in New England, people needed to get to work at a certain time, so there was some standardization. But it was the railroads that forced the time zones because of the need to regularize train schedules. But this was very controversial. Telling time by a sundial was the custom and it was understood to be following God’s time. The idea of standardizing because of the needs of a modern world seemed sacrilegious to many. Before I read that blog this morning, I had honestly never thought about time standardization. I just accepted that it has always been this way. But it was only 64 years before I was born that the time zones came into being.
