Dave Bonner

We found our way to Mountain Shadows Presbyterian Church USA in Oro Valley, Arizona, on Sunday morning last. For a brief moment, we joined their choir.

What?

Like good Wyomingites, Sue and I sprang forward with Daylight Saving Time Sunday. Worship services are at 10 a.m., so we dutifully moved our watches and clocks forward an hour at bedtime Saturday and made our way to the outskirts of town to be there for the 10 a.m. hour. There’s one problem: Arizona (along with Hawaii) doesn’t observe DST and has standard time fixed year-round. We inconveniently forgot that fact.

When we arrived at the church, we didn’t realize we were there a little before 9 a.m.; that’s not what our watches said. The only folks there were the choir members going through an early morning choir practice.

We retreated to town for one more cup of coffee.

Yes, we did go back, and the Presbyterians were welcoming to the addled, time-challenged Cowboys from Wyoming.

There are movements both in Congress and in state legislatures across the country to end the twice-annual clock switching — “spring forward” in March and “fall back” in November. Some push for Daylight Saving Time year-around; others want to forgo DST and keep the “fall-back” schedule all year, which is what Arizona and Hawaii do.

In Wyoming, Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, leads such a legislative effort, though from long distance and in the last days of the session, I don’t know where that bill stands.

I do know this: Minor incident it was, but our church-going mishap is a small example of the confusion that a hodge-podge of time zones in the country could create.