(Sometime in the ’90s I attempted to re-read this diary. I put it aside in despair as boring. A year ago, I made another attempt. This early entry showed that my aim of capturing a time, the difference betwen NOW and THEN, had paid off. Here is revealed how different was something as simple as figuring out the correct time in the 20th century.)

This morning my alarm went off, as usual, and after turning it off a few times I finally got up, showered, brushed my teeth, and fixed myself a cup of coffee, all the while wondering why it was still so dark at 7:00 am. Finally I carried my coffee into my study, took a couple of sips, turned on my Mac, and discovered that according to the computer clock, it was 4:21 am. Great consternation and annoyance, since I had already used the last of the yogurt and drunk some coffee. To make sure, I turned on the television — only one station was to be found, and it was showing a Kung Fu movie in Chinese without subtitles. A quick phonecall to time and temp confirmed that it was, indeed, about 4:30. Apparently, in setting my alarm, I moved the time up.  I abandoned the coffee and went back to bed and some very troubled dreams.