Pretty much every single evening.
Our dining room has a rotary dimmer switch and we use it all the time. LED bulbs in it, works fine.
For a period of about 10 years after cell phones became popular and before smart watches became a thing, most of us had to pull our cell phones out of our pockets to check the time, like we were back in the pocket watch era.
My watches have gears in them, and these springs that you have to wind up every morning. I have a suspicion my watches aren’t on your graph.
Damn near everybody has a cell phone on them now, but how many actually have a smart watch?
The (LED) lights in our master bathroom are on a dimmer. Every night before we go to bed, I turn the dimmer way down low. When I get up in the morning, I can then turn the lights on without blinding myself.
Yeah, they seem like the accessory for people wanting to demonstrate just how tech-savvy or digitally connected they are, but not nearly so ubiquitous as that xkcd makes them out to be.
I mean my brother has one, but he’s also got every brand new cool Apple thing there is, so I doubt the smart watch aspect was what drew him to it. Similarly, a good buddy has one, but he never quit wearing a wristwatch, so for him, it was more of a switch to a more functional device than anything else.
I don’t have one; I happen to rather like the freedom that comes from having my timepiece hidden away and something I have to deliberately go look at when I choose. That’s also why I put my phone(s) on total mute 99% of the time. I’m checking them and the time when I feel like it and only when I feel like it.
Call it a tiny rebellion against the 24/7 connected culture if you want, but it feels a lot better than being constantly aware of the time and every email/text message I’ve been sent.
The pocketwatch thing sort of cracked me up; my MIL was grousing one day about how we’ve gone backward from wristwatches and how people use their phones like pocket watches now. I sort of shot her argument down her by pointing out that if you have a wristwatch and a phone, you’ve got two things to keep up with, maintain, etc… that do the exact same thing (i.e. keep time). I conveniently didn’t bring smart watches up though.
And is it more or fewer than how many still wear a “regular watch”?
I can’t stand wearing a wristwatch. If it’s snug enough to keep the watch body from gouging the back of my hand or rotating to press on my wrist bones, then the band makes my wrist sweat. Somehow it never occurred to me to use a bandless watch body as a pocket watch. These days, having my phone show me the time as soon as I take it out of my pocket is an important function.
I did that for many, many years. I always hated having stuff around my wrists, and finally just got rid of the watchband entirely. I had an actual pocket watch for a few years, but it got damaged. After that, I had cellphones, so never looked back.
If you’re angry with someone on the phone you can no longer hang up the receiver on them with a loud CLUNK to show your displeasure. The best you can do is push the disconnect button with your finger aggressively, but the payoff is less than spectacular. Cellphones need a CLUNK button.
I still wear a regular wristwatch every day. A cheap Timex. I like to be able to tell time at a glance. Much faster than dragging my phone out of my pocket.
Yes, a wristwatch has an utterly superior mode of use for checking the time compared to the phone. Most of the time it doesn’t matter, but at other times, it’s a make-or-break kind of deal.
I use a wristwatch when hunting, for instance, where I need to check the time in a split second, with minimal motion, no light emission etc. If I were a private eye or a spy, I would never take off my wristwatch.
i dont have any type of watch… i lose them to easily and wouldn’t buy one that was over 5-10 bucks because of that
A Kohler? That’s a wannabe. You need a Ferguson. It produces a man’s flush.
I agree a watch is vastly simpler / quicker for checking the time and I’ve worn one most of my life for just that reason. Now approaching retirement I find not knowing or caring the time of day except approximately is just fine w me.
However … I’m wondering what the clock time has to do with hunting? If I could imagine an activity where I truly don’t care about the human-imposed cadence of civilization, it’d be when out in the woods doing whatever.
Hunting also consists of lots of waiting and only a little action. IMO/IME during the action one has no need of knowing the time, and during the waiting, one has figuratively all day to learn the time, and still doesn’t much need to know it.
Combat is different. But only because it’s a team sport and your actions sometimes need to be synced with other soldiers’ actions. But if you’re not involved in a sync’ed event, the exact time is equally useless to a soldier.
Bottom line: I’m curious why you check the time while hunting?
Most, if not all states, have regulations regarding allowed time for hunting. For example “1/2 hour before sunrise”.
Well, for a quick primer, I’m the type of hunter who approaches the act in a research project kind of way. I take notes on everything that happens ahunting. It pays handsomely, as it accelerates my learning and knowhow quite a bit. Finding patterns in a seemingly haphazard collection of encounters, or learning objectively that there is none, is a big part of this, and very satisfying in itself.
Many game animals have extremely precise internal clocks and attendant habits, which means they appear, and disappear to the minute, in certain hunting scenarios. It is very useful to know in advance when the moment of truth unfolds. Obviously, an entire ambush will be timetabled around these golden seconds. No need to sit in the blind all day, when you know the best two or three hours to be there, and the actually action-filled five minutes when you need to be on top of your game (heh).
Most encounters are of course not to the minute. But time is still important. When I go after jackrabbits in mid-winter, I now know it is useless to go looking for them at 3 am; they are likely nowhere to be seen. 5 am is when they are on the move and shot opportunities present themselves left and right.
Conversely, when I go after pheasants early in the season, I know if I wait until 5 am, they will already be on the move, in the thick undergrowth, and not sleeping perched in the trees, where they can be spotted from afar and shot sitting still.* Etc. etc.
Then there are the roe deer, who follow zero time patterns and keep themselves alive by coming and going at any time of the day or night.
*I’m an instinctive archery hunter, so what would be yawn-inducingly easy and unethical to a hunter with a firearm is decidedly not so with my self-imposed limitations.
Following a hit with a broadhead arrow, there is a mandatory waiting period before going after the animal, which usually dashes off, even when mortally wounded. How long to wait depends on myriad factors, but it is very useful to know if 30 or 45 minutes, or one hour or 90 minutes has passed. The adrenaline-laced moments after arrowing an animal are where one’s normally acute sense of time can be pretty out of whack.
Thank you. Today I learned …
What’s the purpose of the wait? To make sure you don’t get attacked by a wounded/angry animal (i.e. you’re waiting for it to be well and truly dead before walking up on it), or to make sure you don’t do something stupid enroute (like falling out of your blind instead of climbing down) because you’re jacked up on adrenaline?
The risk of getting attacked is not the reason, although it can be part of the motive, especially when dealing with bear and boar. Neither is the adrenaline-soaked hunter.
Broadhead arrows are extremely lethal, but they deliver no shock into the animal, having whisper-level kinetic energies compared to bullets / slugs. They cut their way through with little resistance (sometimes you can’t even tell from the animal’s reaction that they have been hit), like a razor cuts a finger without even trying, and with little (initial) pain or effect.
The objective in most hunting shots, but especially in archery hunting shots, is to puncture both lungs of the game animal which makes living a non-proposition, but not instantly.
Most of the time, a hit game animal makes for a mad dash as life is exiting. In that mode, a deer can cover a couple hundred yards in 10 seconds. Couple hundred yards of dense woodland.
An animal that is left alone following the hit often beds soon and dies not too far away, making recovery infinitely easier. A pursued, hit animal will run as fast and as far as it can, quickly increasing the search area manyfold. Even deer-sized dead animals can almost disappear into the terrain, especially in low light.
Typically, a well-hit animal expires within 10 - 20 seconds. But there are no guarantees. Arrows and animals are fast enough that it isn’t always clear what just happened.
An especially alert animal that started to duck the oncoming arrow, for instance, may be hit in a non-optimal spot. Then, waiting for the wound to do its job becomes even more critically important.
The usual, time-tested practice is to wait 30 to 45 minutes after an arrow connected, to cover most of the scenarios; there is no harm in waiting, but there may be some real trouble ahead if going after the animal too soon.
In the worst case scenarios, ie. gut-shot animals, the waiting period should be several hours. Then the animal can be recovered with not too much trouble. Pursued, even hunting area limits may turn into an issue.