I've lost track of time.
I'm well aware of what the clock says and what it has been saying for the last hour or so. I'm up at 3:09 am as I write this post. Although I don't even know what 3:09 means with any certainty right now. It should mean I'm in bed asleep. I keep conventional daytime work hours which means conventional nighttime sleep hours.
When I say, "lost track of time," it hasn't been for lack of trying to hold on to it. I just got back from six weeks of International travel literally circling the northern hemisphere.
Let's start with my tracking of calendar time. On Tuesday, February 3, I left my home in Vermont for a flight to California. At this point, I started tracking my perception of the date and time in the US Eastern Standard convention, and simultaneously tracking time in US Pacific Standard. My wife, one of my children and her family, and my professional colleagues would be adhering to EST. For the next few days, I would be physically localized in PST while tracking EST for my engagement with the time expectations of those now three hours ahead of me.
Meanwhile, I was preparing to visit Tokyo, and was making personal and professional appointments. I have a son and family there, plus ongoing work engagements around the world. I had made some appointments for while I was in Tokyo from Eastern Time. Now I'm tracking those appointments from Pacific time and making new appointments in Tokyo from the point of view of Pacific Time. Some of those appointments would be with people in Tokyo and will be engaged in Tokyo during my shared time there. Others of those appointments were with people in Eastern and Central Time which will be kept while I'm in Tokyo.
At that point, I would make appointments from Tokyo with people in Tokyo as well as in three US time zones, in addition to Greenwich Mean Time, and Central European Time.
My next stop after Tokyo would be Amsterdam
During the last week, the US time zones would shift an hour later for daylight time. My appointments in the US would all shift an hour relative to having been made from Standard Time, while Japan and Central Europe would stay on Standard Time. In the middle of that week my personal point of reference would shift from Japan Time to Central Europe Time, and I will be keeping appointments made from Japan from the frame of reference of Central Europe time which won't shift to Daylight Time until the end of March.
Throughout this shift of time perspective from Japan to Central Europe, I prepared for returning to US Eastern to keep appointments made from the time perspective of Japan and Central Europe now to be kept on US Daylight Saving Time.
I'm home in Vermont. It's now 3:57 am US Eastern Daylight Saving Time. I have a dentist appointment at 11:15am.
Despite being able to say this with precision. I am wide awake on a Tuesday morning.
I have lost track of time.
Warm regards,
Francis Sopper