MILLER STANDARD TIME

BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted September 23, 2005)

My wife and I both do something that, truthfully, makes no sense -- but we can't stop.

Each of us.... in our respective automobile.... keeps the dashboard clock set at 9 minutes ahead of the actual time.

We're keenly aware that the correct time is 9 minutes earlier than what is displayed, so it really doesn't trick us into arriving early for appointments.... and it doesn't keep us from being late.
Anytime I glance at the clock, I immediately subtract 9 minutes from whatever is displayed.

Karen and I never discussed setting both clocks 9 minutes ahead.... it just happened.
It's one of those spontaneous rhythms of couples.

Recently, we considered perhaps resetting the clocks to the correct time, but we quickly realized they've been 9 minutes ahead for so long that it would quite likely cause undo confusion.... and we could easily, out of habit, subtract 9 minutes from the correct time.
Then we'd be 9 minutes late for everything.

There was one minor problem yesterday....
Karen told me that her clock had somehow jumped to 10 minutes ahead, and it's been throwing her off by a whole minute. She actually wants me to set it back one minute, so it's precisely 9 minutes fast.

By the way, I also keep my age set to 9 years ahead......
So no matter how old you might hear that I am, remember I'm actually 9 years younger than that!

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