Peter Orvetti has become unstuck in time.

I think of that phrase on those two work nights each year when the clock jumps in the middle of my work shift. It is odd springing ahead in the middle of a work night — but even odder falling back, 1:58, 1:59, 1:00, 1:01… I also find myself thinking of that great episode of “The Adventures of Pete and Pete” — starring Hampshire College alumnus Danny Tamberelli — in which time travel is possible during the shifting hour.

But over the past few years I’ve often felt “unstuck in time”. I used to be very time-aware. When I was a kid I was fascinated by watches and clocks, and I read a lot about time. My seventh-grade science fair project (for which I have a Second Prize plaque somewhere) was about time. When I was trying to learn to play an instrument, I was told I had a great sense of rhythm, almost like I had an internal metronome. (Unfortunately, that sense of rhythm never conveyed to the dance floor.) I was like John Cleese in that John Cleese movie I never saw. In fact, my sense of time was so accurate that sometimes, without having seen a clock for hours, I would guess the time and usually be accurate within 10 minutes.

That all began to change about seven years ago, when I started my night job. My sleep patterns have never been normal since, and when I shifted from a Monday to Friday schedule to a Wednesday to Sunday one, it got even odder. I have the experience of waking up, glancing at the clock, and not knowing if it is A.M. or P.M. When I think of what day of the week it is, I can be off by several days. Sometimes I even briefly forget what month it is.

This strange timelessness has been exacerbated by the stability in my life. I have been in the same job and same house for 6 1/2 years, and for 4 1/2 of those years I have been a father. My days are great but mostly similar, and time speeds by unnoticed. Sometimes I think of an event that seems like it was a few months ago, and then remember it was three or four years ago.

It’s probably no surprise that I don’t even own a working watch anymore.