Fall Back

As TigerBlog was driving along yesterday, he couldn't help but notice that there was an amazing sunset over the highway.

Unfortunately, it was at 5:00 or so.

There are few days that are more generally depressing than the "fall back" day, where clocks are set back an hour and Daylight Savings Time morphs into Standard Time. Even before the clocks are actually set back an hour, it starts to get dark out earlier and earlier, so that it's pretty much pitch-black by 6:15 or so.

The setting back of the clock only rubs it in even more.

One of TigerBlog's favorite people who ever walked into Jadwin Gym is Louise Gengler, the longtime women's tennis coach who was a tad, uh, absent-minded. Once, after the clocks were set back, Louise and TB had this conversation:

LG: What time is it?
TB: Two o'clock.
LG: Good. I have an appointment at 3, and I couldn't remember if I set my clock back or not.

The whole idea of getting an extra hour of sleep is a bit misleading as well. Unless you have to do something on Sunday morning, you're going to get up at the same point you would anyway, only it'll be an hour earlier.

Plus, your whole sleep is thrown off the night before, because you have no idea what time it really is, especially if the clock in your room automatically changes (like the cable box or something like that).

If you have little, little kids - babies, toddlers - then the worst day of the year by far is the day you set the clock back, because their little schedules aren't quite adjustable to a simple time change.

Still, for all of that, the worst part is still Sunday late afternoon, when it's so nice out and the sun is shining and all at 3 or 3:30 and then a hour later it's already starting to set.

It's a harsh reminder that winter is almost here.

Of course, there are other reminders.

First, there's the fact that the fall season is winding down here at Princeton, even when it seems like it just started.

Women's soccer and sprint football have finished their seasons, and women's volleyball (barring a Yale collapse that would force a playoff game) and men's soccer will be finished this coming weekend.

Football has two games remaining. Field hockey emerged from a crowded field to win the Ivy title and take the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which begins with a play-in game against Rider here tomorrow at 1.

As an aside, anything TB writes about field hockey for the rest of this season will make the assumption that everyone knows by now that Princeton is without its top four players, who have helped the U.S. qualify for the Olympics.

Cross country has NCAA regional competition this weekend in Maryland, and men's water polo has the Eastern championships in two weekends. All three of those teams - or none - could emerge from that round to reach the NCAA championships.

And that's it for your fall.

Of course, winter has already started, what with both hockey teams having combined to play 11 games already.

In what can be termed hard to believe, basketball season starts this weekend. The women's team hosts St. Joe's Friday night at 7, while the men play Wagner Saturday at 5.

Wrestling begins this coming weekend, and squash, fencing and swimming and diving all jump into it the following weekend.

This Saturday's schedule is pretty jam-packed and makes for a pretty good Saturday of sports here.

The football team plays Yale at noon, followed by men's soccer against Yale at 3, men's hockey against Clarkson at 4, women's volleyball against Columbia at 5 and the men's basketball game against Wagner also at 5.

And if that's not enough, then the men's lacrosse opener is only 3.5 months away.

And Daylight Savings starts on March 11, 2012.