I have been exhausted lately and Daylight Savings Time isn't helping. Not only is it taking superhuman effort to get the kids in bed and asleep before 11 p.m., but now I have to buy a new alarm clock.

When I bought the current clock several years ago, I loved it. Nice big numbers used to be large enough for me to read without my glasses or contacts, but over the years, I think those numbers have decreased in size. The clock also reset itself if the power went out without the need for backup batteries.

Even better -- it automatically adjusted the time during the spring and fall time changes. At least it did before the U.S. government decided to mess with the time change weekends. This change wasn't a problem at first because there were several news stories about how a certain weekend *used* to be the night to fall back or spring forward. But now that we are a few time changes removed from the government's helpfulness, no one talks about it as much anymore.

And that is the reason I have to buy a new clock. The media failed to mention -- at least any of the media I saw/read -- that the time change would've occurred this past weekend rather than a few weeks ago. So when the alarm clock started singing at 6:45 a.m. the other morning, I kept hitting the snooze until 7:15ish. When I realized D had crawled back in bed rather than started to get ready for work, I asked him what was going on. Yeah, it was actually an hour earlier than what our clock said. So wrong!!

So I was awaken much earlier than I should've been and for an anti-morning person, this is grounds for trashing the failed electronic. To make matters worse, evidently Leap Year was involved because this time change occurred Monday morning instead of Sunday morning, and now the date on the clock reads April 6.

It has caused more confusion that it is worth. So when I take one of my many trips to WalMart or Target, I will be shopping for a new clock.