I’m headed for bed in a few minutes; this is the last thing to do as this Friday comes to an end. I’m looking forward to a cool and wet weekend. As a result, I’m sure I won’t be disappointed. It’s April General Conference Weekend. Everyone in the northern Utah and southeastern Idaho area, regardless of affiliation, knows that it always, and I mean always, rains on conference weekend (unless it snows). We do have company of sorts for the weekend. Nina’s niece Ashlyn and her friend Claudia are here for a couple of days. It’s fun to have them here — they sure do have a lot more energy at late hours of the evening than either Nina or I have!

This past week has an unsual twist to it. The United States (or at least, much of the country) changes to Daylight Savings Time on the first Sunday in April. Europe, on the other hand, makes that change on the last Sunday in March. All of us switch back to standard time on the same last Sunday in October. So, for this week, my collegues in Belgium are 9 hours ahead of me instead of the normal 8 hours. Eight o’clock in the morning in Pocatello is usually four o’clock in the afternoon in Belgium. However, for this one week out of the year, eight o’clock here is 5:00 p.m. there. That one hour makes a difference — the work meetings that need people in attendance from both Pocatello and Belgium normally occur between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. in the morning, which normally translates to 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Belgium. However, during this one week, the 3:00 p.m. Belgian time meeting happens at 6:00 a.m. in Pocatello. Consequently, I’m always relieved when this week is finished. Next week we’ll be back on the normal meeting schedules.

But, all of that changes next year. Congress has changed the changeover dates starting in 2007. So, next year we will change to Daylight Savings Time on the second Sunday in March. That means next year for two weeks the time difference will be seven hours. I like that difference a whole lot better. For those two week we can move all the 7:00 a.m. meetings to 8:00 a.m. and get an extra hour of sleep. I ready for that!