Hello, November 1 from the early and now BRIGHTER morning of 7 am. The return to Pacific Standard Time (PST) has once again boosted my spirits as it does in annual fashion. I’m awake, alive, stretched, and ready for Sunday! This morning at 2 am, I watched the digital clock on my hand-held spaceship slip back from 1:59 am to 1:00 am in a blip on the screen and heard the Halloween party people at the Dragon Lounge down the block on the corner howl with delight. The Pacific Daylight Time zone is caput, and it’s the month that celebrates me.
Ancient civilizations flexibly adjusted their schedules to the sun as some of us do during the summer, so it’s not just that Roman water clocks scaled differently during certain months of the year, but the point that more morning light offers our higher brains (and our tending of agriculture) more time to shine. A Wiki purports to Sir Winston Churchill having once argued that it enlarges “…the opportunities for the pursuit of health and happiness among the millions of people who live in this country.” There is a fascinating history of DST at this Wiki, and I suggest you read it for fun and adventure. Many a political fight has been waged in the U.S. around the inability to fully standardize DST throughout the entire country due to various benefits and drawbacks. The politics behind it (both for and against) are quite amusing and include reasons to accept the time change that hold Idaho potatoes and fast-food french fries accountable.
November, November a month like no other! The Julian calendar month of eleven and one of four calendar months that contain only 30 days distinguishes this beauty from the others. It is one that my mother and I celebrated together in the happiest of ways: celebrating our birth month, week, and day; celebrating her sons on Veterans Day that they remained alive through their tours of duty; on Thanksgiving when we would dine with family to give thanks to our solid middle-class standing and the ability to have a special meal together even though it meant some travel at times. Some other good bits about November gathered from several online sites and a Wiki on November:
- November 1 is called November Day (Lá Samhna) in Celtic tradition and is thus named in the Irish Calendar, where the month is called Mí na Samhna.
- Mexico celebrates November 2 as el Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and the whole month of November is especially dedicated to praying for the dead. The Christian calendar hails 11/2 as All Souls Day.
- November 11th celebrates both Polish and Angolan Independence days.
- Remembrance Day is celebrated on November 11 in the Commonwealth of Nations and various European countries (including France and Belgium) to commemorate World War I and other wars. It is known as Veterans Day in the United States.
- In India, Children’s Day is celebrated on November 14, the birth date of first Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
These are only half of the available celebrations of the first half of the month of November and none of them include the wonderful Pacific coast chill in the weather!
While the Financial times press forward with headlines for Nov. 1, 2015, warning: “US Faces Fresh Russian Navy Challenge” (double entendre?) adding “…Increased Activity from [the] Black Sea and Med to Pacific,” and “Pyongyang’s arms drive is gaining pace”, I remain couched in my humble and deliriously over-worked folds of my brain, paying homage to my favorite month.
Alas, I’m off to visit Bunbury in the countryside and leave humanity to its own devices.
danajae33 
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