It’s after 12 noon, PST, and my son is struggling to wake up on the couch. Thank you, clock change. As much as I appreciate the energy savings that comes from switching the times we get up during the long daylight hours of the year, we just spent a month trying to adjust my son’s sleep schedule so he can be awake in the morning and not sitting up, alone, in the dark of night trying to sleep. He’s described himself as “a kid with weird sleep problems,” and we were so friggin’ close to settling him in to his new schedule.

Can’t we just skip our “fall back” next November? Hell, half the time I wish we could just all switch over to GMT–do absolutely need to have my lunch at 12:30 pm rather than 8:30 pm? I don’t see why.

In other news, I’m sitting here in Seattle listening to my city officials hit the snooze button on earthquake preparedness yet again. Every time a big quake hits somewhere on the Ring of Fire (or a minor quake hits here, as it did in Feb of 2001) the news starts talking about “waking up” and “alarms” but of course nothing was done. There’s no prestige associated with seismic retrofitting–instead our local governments are fighting over a “deep bore tunnel” under downtown Seattle as a replacement for the elevated viaduct highway.

Meanwhile, I’m living in an apartment in a converted house–built with cinderblocks (and uninsulated, too, the bastards)–and I have no idea how well it would stand up to a real earthquake. Luckily, Admiralty Inlet would blunt the force of a tsunami before it reached Seattle itself, but the quake itself could be a nightmare.

And what the hell can I do about either of these things?