Late February and March weather, where I live, is changeable.
Take these two selfies, taken a day apart.
We briefly hit 60F (15.5C) yesterday. It may be in the 70's (21C) by Tuesday. The snow is almost melted.
Then, back to the freezer, and maybe snow showers by Thursday. Meanwhile, I'll try to recover from the change to Daylight Saving Time.
Joining Lisa at This and That: A Blog, for her #ShadowshotSunday.
For years, I've blogged about our twice a year time change. Spring ahead, fall back.
Tomorrow, in the United States, we "fall back" an hour at 2am, and resume Standard Time. This will last until March 10, when we will "spring ahead" an hour, and spend the day totally disoriented.
I'll be disoriented tomorrow, too.
For years, people have been trying to either get us on year round Daylight Saving Time or year round Standard Time (the time we are falling back to tomorrow). As of now, many states have passed measures to make one form of time permanent but federal legislation is needed to allow these laws to go into effect. My state, New York, has seven bills pending but none have made progress so far. There are bills to both make Daylight Saving Time permanent (which needs federal legislation) and one to make Standard Time permanent (which does not).
If we aren't careful, we may end up with a patchwork of states on Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time. (People in Indiana may still remember when, during the summer, part of the state was on Eastern Daylight Saving Time, part on Eastern Standard Time, part on Central Daylight Saving Time and part on Central Standard Time. I didn't live in Indiana but I traveled through it on occasion, and it was confusing. This was fixed in 2006, when the entire state implemented Daylight Saving Time.
Arizona and Hawaii have year round Standard Time. However, the part of the Diné land that is in Arizona observes Daylight Saving Time so they can be in sync with their territory in other neighboring states.
Meanwhile, some doctors think that we would be more healthy with year round Standard Time.
Confused yet?
So are we.
Bottom line: until we make up our mind (and don't we have so many other pressing matters?) we will keep going through this twice a year ritual.
I blogged this back in the beginning of January and on this, the first full day of spring, perhaps it's time to publish this.
The Southern Tier of New York was closed for the winter.
No, not really, but sometimes it feels that way. Let's pretend it's January.
Days blend into each other. Normally, skies would be overcast and temperatures would be low, day after day. Snow would cover the ground, and bare ground would make one feel just a little uneasy. Many places are on winter hours. Museums are closed the early part of the week. Garden centers and some farm markets are closed until April or even May. Outdoor farmers markets are definitely closed.
Although our temperatures are cooler than last week, they are still above normal. I am still taking exercise walks outdoors without wearing boots. The snow is gone. It will return, I know. What I am afraid of is January weather in April. Or even May.
It's happened before.
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| Blowing snow (taken December 23) |
One loses track of time easier at this time of year although my guess is, it's still winter.
Is it just me, or has it become harder and harder to remember what day of the week it is? Even Siri is having problems. I was talking to my spouse outdoors as I took a picture last week and Siri suddenly spoke up, without me prompting it by saying "Hey, Siri". It started to inform me what the date was.
Did I ask it to?
I have to remember days, as I still work part time. It would be embarrassing not to sign in Monday because I thought it was a non-work day. In fact, when I wake up, the first thing I do is tell myself "today is ________". Like today. Tuesday. I work today.
But my spouse, who is retired, doesn't always remember the day of the week right off. Neither does my brother in law or his wife, both of whom are retired.
And meanwhile, now, it's spring.
The first of the garden centers I frequent opened on Saturday.
Trees have come awake. The birds are singing. Northern cardinals, blackbirds, chickadees, and yes, robins.
And yet, it can still be hard to remember what day of the week it is.
Does everyone forget about time when they retire? I wonder.
Savor this weekend.
The American people have asked for it for many years, "it" being the end of the twice a year madness of clocks moving an hour ahead in mid-March. The next installment of this less popular March Madness will happen tomorrow at 2a.m. local time except in a handful of states (Hawaii and parts of Arizona) which never adopted Daylight Saving Time.
Daylight Saving (not Savings) Time has an interesting history in the United States.
This year, we may get our wish, but, as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
Several states have already enacted legislation but it is not simple as states saying their law is year round Daylight Saving Time. Is it ever simple?
As the laws are written now, a state can stay on Standard Time (the time we in the United States are all on between the first Sunday in November and the middle Sunday of March) if it wishes by legislation - no federal input or law change is necessary.
That's how Hawaii and parts of Arizona have done it.
However, Federal legislation can be passed and signed into law to create a year round Daylight Saving Time. Right now, some 19 states have enacted such legislation, and more are in that process, but these laws can't go into effect without Federal legislation permitting it. Senator Marco Rubio has gotten such legislation passed in the Senate but, to date, no such bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives.
The year round Daylight Saving Time has been tried before, and I can remember one of those times (January of 1974). When the year round Daylight Saving Time was put into effect (in late 1973, to be effective in January 1974) there was a high amount of public support. We were in the midst of an energy crisis (leading to long gasoline lines, and gas shortages) and the extra hour of daylight in the evening, it was thought, would help. We would have year round Daylight Saving Time for two years.
However, soon after it went into effect, people realized they didn't like the sun rising an hour later than usual. In fact, it was such a disaster that the experiment was cut short. That fall, Standard Time returned.
But, we should savor this weekend. Maybe it really is the last time we will do the time change tango.
Only time (no pun intended) will tell.
