 |
| October, please come back! |
I find myself writing these posts twice a year. Tomorrow, I will wake up, and my spouse will reset our clocks, gaining back an hour we lost in March of this year. And then, the sun will set just before 5pm to my delight (not). Monday, when I go to work, I will not see full daylight at my house again until next Saturday.
Twice a year, our country goes through this agony (spring ahead, fall back, stumble around disoriented for a couple of days, then forget about the whole thing) as we discuss:
Why are we doing this?
Is it really necessary?
Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the United States Virgin Islands don't do it. Why should we?
Why must we?
Leonid and Friends cover of Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?)
It does make for some interesting quirks in travel.
I remember, back in the early 1980's, traveling through Indiana several times. Indiana has a time zone line go through the state. Part of the state is on Eastern time and part on Central time. Back then, there were counties on year round standard time and counties that observed daylight saving time. As you drove through the state you gained and lost and gained and lost and could easily find yourselves two hours behind where you thought you should be.
There is the "daylight time doughnut" in Arizona. The state is on standard time year round, but the Navajo Nation observes daylight time. But then, the Hopi Nation, whose territory is completely surrounded by the Navajo's territory, observes year round standard time like Arizona in general. The Navajo's decision to not follow the State of Arizona (which they have the right to do) was made because portions of their territory extends into neighboring states that do have daylight time, and the Navajos wanted to be internally consistent within their nation.
Seven out of ten Americans support not changing our clocks during the year but most of us disagree on how to do it. Even my spouse and I disagree. He supports year round standard time, for the sake of children getting to class in the light, which about four in ten Americans agree with. Another three in ten want year round daylight time. I would rather we "split the difference" - advance 1/2 hour next spring and stay there with no more changes.
Although, truly, I wish October would return.
What do you think about the time changes, if you live where Daylight Saving Time exists?
We are on daylight saving time for most of te year. Let’s just leave it that way.
ReplyDeleteJust tooo crazy-making & adds another adjustment the body must make twice a year. Spin the wheel. I don't care where the wheel stops, just stop on ONE of them and stay there permanently!
ReplyDeleteI HATE IT!!!!! My congresswoman tried to tell me that we save enough energy nationwide to power 100,000 homes each year. Total. I tried to explain that my relatively small suburb has about 28,000 homes, so big deal. Four suburbs in our entire country? It is just madness. I think we only need two time zones anyway. One on each side of the Mississippi. But who cares what I think.
ReplyDeleteWe were just talking about this--my husband is dead set against keeping one time zone. I leave at 6:30 am when its dark and return when its dark, depressing. Just saying...sigh.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid winter will be upon us soon here in western NY, Alaina.
I agree. There may have once been a logic behind the idea of Daylight Saving Time, but that logic doesn't seem to exist any more.
ReplyDeleteYes, we need to stick to one or anther. Not looking forward for it to get dark at 4 something in afternoon.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on
I so agree with you.I thought California voted last year to do away with it, but the CA State congress shot it down (I think).
ReplyDeletePresident Trump wants to do away with DST, which means that half the people in the country will automatically think it's a stupid idea.
ReplyDeleteDaylight Saving Time has been sold to us as the panacea for saving energy, even though it's been shown not to save any energy and in fact uses more of it.
DST never was an issue when it ran from the last Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October, because it took people's circadian rhythms into consideration: we didn't set the clocks ahead until it was as bright at 6 AM as it was at 7 AM on the first day of spring, and returned them to normal when the sun started rising at 8 AM, roughly a month after the beginning of fall. If we were to go back to that, I'd be a happy boy...
The last couple weeks have been hard for me. I've been going to school in the dark, and I don't like it. This morning it was actually light when I left home. The time change doesn't bother me too much, so I'm okay with whatever. I do like it light later in the summer, but now it doesn't matter so much.
ReplyDelete