Even the dogs knew better

I got back from India before Shabbat and used the day of rest to catch up on some much needed napping.  But Saturday night my internal clock was still telling me it was on Mumbai time... so I tried to stay up as late as possible to force my system back onto Israel time.

I finally went to bed Saturday night at around 1:00 AM after setting the alarm on my mobile phone to wake me at the usual 5:15 AM, and drifted off to sleep almost immediately.

After what seemed like about 30 seconds, I was jolted awake by the sound of the mobile phone alarm blasting accordion music in my ear (hey, you use whatever works).  I was so tired that I almost went back to sleep.  But the rest of the family counts on me to get the coffee going and set the table for breakfast (not to mention wake them up once everything is ready).  So with a heavy sigh I hauled myself out of bed and staggered up the stairs to start my morning routine.

The first thing I noticed that seemed out of sorts was the fact that Lulu (the younger of our two black Labrador mixes) didn't come out of her sleeping spot and try to trip me on the stairs, as is her custom.  Also, when I got to the main floor of our house, Jordan (the elder of the two black lab mixes) wasn't waiting for me at the top of the stairs, as is her custom.  Strange.

I went into the kitchen, turned on the lights, ground the coffee and set the nectar of life to brewing.  Once the coffee was up, I set the table for breakfast (everyone gets their own special mug... even Yonah). and took out the milk, cream, cereals and various yogurts and cottage cheese.

Hmmmm, still no sign of the dogs.  Odd.  By this time they'd usually be dancing at the front door and scratching to be let out.   No big deal, I thought to myself.  They might be locked in one of the kids rooms... it wouldn't be the first time.  I made a mental note to check on that when I woke the kids.

Once the fresh coffee was ready, I poured it into the thermal carafe so it would stay hot throughout the morning rush.  That done, I rinsed out the coffee pot and was about to put it back in its place when the digital clock on the oven caught my eye:  02:55!!!  That couldn't be right!

I went into the living room to look at the wind-up ship's clock I have on one of the shelves, and sure enough; 2:55!  And there on the floor beneath the shelves lay the two dogs on their beds... snoring softly as if to mock me.  As I stood there contemplating how this could have happened, Jordan lifted her head and turned a questioning eye towards me as if to say, 'What's wrong with you?".

Then it hit me. 

While I'd been in India, I'd been using an Indian cell phone provided by my company.  But at one point during the trip I had needed to look up a couple of phone numbers that were stored in my Israeli mobile's memory, so I had turned it on for a few minutes. 

My Israeli phone has a function that automatically keeps the time and date synced to the local network.  That way I don't have to worry about daylight savings time or re-setting the time and date on the rare occasions when I take out the battery.  So when I had turned on the phone in India, it must have automatically adjusted the time and date to Indian time... two-and-a-half hours ahead of Israel time.

What puzzled me (and continues to do so even now) is why the stupid phone didn't sync back up with Israel time when I landed here and turned it back on.  Murphy's Law, I guess.

Anyway, I went back downstairs to bed... a little embarrassed that even the dogs knew enough not to get up when I showed up and started making morning noise.  The only up-side to the whole episode was that I was able to catch another two hours of sleep before my alarm woke me up... this time at the correct time. 

Oh yeah, there was one more silver lining;  Instead of having to go up and make the coffee and set the table, I got to stay in bed for a few extra minutes... and share this with you!