Time change: Looking for a bright side

I have never liked Daylight Savings Time. As I get older, I find it not as easy to pop out of bed as early as I like and having the…

I have never liked Daylight Savings Time. As I get older, I find it not as easy to pop out of bed as early as I like and having the clocks jump ahead an hour does not help. I have always found the morning hours to be the most productive and I always resent "losing" the hour in the morning.

But recently someone made a suggestion that gives the time change some useful purpose for people like me for whom it simply represents a nuisance. The idea is to use the two bi-yearly time changes as "markers" for performing those mundane shop maintenance tasks that always seem to be getting put off until you "get a round to it." Things like changing the lube in your belt sander or power feeder gearbox. Or cleaning out the crud that had caked up in the rack and pinion the cranks the table on your drill press up and down. And when was the last time you cleaned the dust off of the ceiling light bulbs? Or drained the compressor tank? Or pulled the drawers out and blew out the sawdust accumulated behind them? Or cleaned out the dust inside your switchboxes?

I really like this idea. For one thing I am the worst kind of procrastinator when it comes to this kind of stuff. So this gives me a way to enforce a schedule that I really don’t have to worry too much about remembering. And it takes a bit of the edge off having to get up an hour earlier.

D.D.

David DeCristoforo possesses an extensive resume as designer/maker of fine furniture, high-end cabinetry and architectural woodwork. His experience in professional woodworking spans a period of 35 years. For the past 20 years David DeCristoforo Design has been located in Woodland, California. During this time David's shop has ranged in scope from a "full on" cabinet production shop with as many as 15 employees to a small fine furniture and custom millwork shop, working with his son, David RBJ, a highly skilled maker in his own right.