Clickin' on Mountain Time

It sure beats chewing on your hang nails or popping M and M' peanuts every two minutes!  

Thanks to cell phones these days, when you're riding shotgun on a road trip, that cell phone can save you from chewing on yourself or consuming far too many calories on road trips. 

My fingernails and hang nails are much better off than usual after this weekend, thanks to my cell phone.

Bill and I took a road trip to Montana and covered about 400 miles of wintry roads in the process. 

The old days of Sunday drives to Western Montana and keeping kids busy by having them count the deer are long past, thanks to technology and to the fact that our kids were not riding with us. 

When we first took off Friday morning in the snowiest, blowiest and foggiest of conditions, I was trying to use my Canon camera to shoot a few wintry photos of Pend Oreille as we passed by the lake through Hope. 

I could tell right away, however, with the cold air blowing in the open window toward Bill and with the fact that I could never really focus on anything until it was two miles behind us, that this tactic for grabbing a few roadside photos was not gonna work.

So, next time we were back in cell range, I resumed surfing through my Facebook, email, Twitter and the news. 

Later, it dawned on me that my cell-phone camera might actually work for taking those photos.  So, as we passed through the farmland and tree-covered fields between Trout Creek and Thompson Falls, I snapped a few pictures THROUGH the closed window. 

One image looked kinda neat so when we proceeded into the next cell phone range, I posted the photo to Facebook.  "Postcard quality . . . great Christmas card and a whole lot of other nice comments along with the always appreciated "likes."  

That makes me wonder if back in those good ol' days, if Facebook had been around for idle passengers on road trips and if we kids had posted the deer count every so often on Facebook, how many "likes" our continuing tally would get. 

These days, however, I doubt that too many idle passengers take much time with the deer count, and these days, Bill and I aren't really in to counting the deer.  

Instead, we're usually praying that they'll just stay out of our way, unlike last year's October road trip when one got in our way near Moyie Springs, which meant we didn't have the Subaru for a month as it waited in line with other deer-impacted vehicles to get fixed.

Well, anyway, with all that snow falling and creating pretty winter scenes, I had a good time shooting pictures out the shotgun window with my cell phone. 

No need to focus.  Just spot an interesting image and point and shoot!  And, this activity does take up a lot of time.

Which, by the way, I must report that Mountain Time changing to standard time over Saturday night really disordered my mind and the minds of a few friends with whom we were visiting.

Nobody in the group could decide what time it was gonna be when we got up on Sunday morning. 

In the midst of a spirited debate, it seemed possible that we were all gonna get up at the same time in our respective domiciles but that the range of what time it was gonna be when we did get up varied by about three hours in the meeting of these minds.

I was sure that I had it down pat.  In fact, my confidence in knowing that the time change would occur in Mountain time  and then what time it would be in Pacific Standard time was so on the mark that I was just downright obnoxious with these friends who, in my mind, just couldn't get it.

I kinda felt sorry for them in their confusion and later headed to bed with my Fitbit close by.  I figured that my Fitbit would not change time unless I synched it.  

So, my Fitbit should have the right Mountain Time when every other clock/time piece in the world "fell back."  

Knowing we were gonna gain one hour for the time change and another hour when we moved back into our time zone relaxed me beyond belief for my slumber.

So, when I woke up yesterday morning, looked at my Fitbit, which said 5:20, I hopped out of bed, personally assured that there was no hurry.  

Silly me.  

For some rather mysterious reason, which I still have not figured out, my Fitbit was an hour behind Montana time AND it had not been changed overnight like computers and cell phones do.  

In fact, we did have three different times on devices in our room, vying for approval yesterday morning.  

That also meant that, even with the clocks turned back and the extra hour, it was later than I thought.  

I'm sure smarter people reading this morningwill figure out the error of my ways. 

I just know that I was much more confused on Sunday morning than on Saturday night. 

Nonetheless, life went on yesterday without incident, although I did have to hurry through my blog posting. 

Thanks to that second extra hour bestowed upon us when we hit the Idaho border, we arrived home mid afternoon in time to watch the Seahawks lose in a rather exciting game.  

If only they had had that extra hour! 

It's nice to be back home on what looks to be a gorgeous winter Monday. 

This morning I still have to change a few clocks to whatever the proper time is in this house.  And, when I change the living room clock, which is traditionally over an hour fast so I can get to town on time, I may have some ciphering to do. 

In retrospect, it was a good time throughout the weekend, even if some of it was on the wrong time, and I'm thrilled to know that I can get a few decent photos while rolling on down the road in the passenger seat. 

The best part of all:  no deer sighting ON THE HOOD OF THE CAR, and our Subaru is doing just fine. 

Happy Monday. 

By the way, does anyone know what time it is in Tulsa????