Rain in Demopolis

Sunday morning, November 1

It’s November

Standard Time

End of Hurricane Season

End of the 32° north latitude restriction

All Saints Day

One day of rain is behind us, another is coming up. We’re hunkered down in Demopolis Marina, Alabama, waiting for the rain to pass. Tomorrow we plan to depart at the crack of dawn to begin the long trip south to Mobile. It takes 3 or 4 days to get there, anchoring each night. The problem is that there are so many of us here at Demopolis that we will have to go through the locks in large numbers (ten or more) and we will end up anchoring in large numbers. That’s not really a problem, it just adds a lot of time when locking through if you have to secure a dozen boats instead of two, so locking through can take anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours, depending on traffic.

Brian and I are taking the marina’s loaner car at 9:30 to see the town and pick up any last-minute things, but the only thing on my shopping list right now is zip-lock bags. Not really worth the effort. There are at least two well-maintained antebellum houses in Demopolis, but at 10:00 Sunday morning, they won’t be open.

Yesterday at this time it was 7:30, now it’s 6:30. It’s my least-favorite morning of the year because going back to Standard Time is never a good idea. All this clock-changing was someone’s crazy idea to try to make everyone happy -- and it has backfired. Our time zones are too large, north to south and east to west, for it to really work. If we ever stop changing the clocks, however, we should keep Daylight Saving Time and eliminate Standard Time. Over the years, we have chipped away at Standard Time week by week, indicating that we already know it’s a bad idea. At this point, Standard Time is only 4 ½ months.

Boats are starting to leave now that it’s daylight. Three of the largest boats are up and running. I am ready to go but the weather isn’t.