Archive: Opinions

Considering that we're about to 'spring ahead' into Daylight Saving Time I thought that little snow storm they dumped on us was completely gratuitous.  Why would they think we would want more daylight when it would only remind us that our cars and driveways are buried?  I don't know who 'they' are, but they certainly do not have their priorities straight.

I have never liked Daylight Saving Time.  It messes up our Web site, which is messed up enough with most of our readers in Eastern Time and the Web server sitting in Texas.  I never know what time that Web site thinks it is, and I simply gave up sending readers the weekly email reminder at midnight when the site might not flip until 1am.

Then in 2007 they changed the dates when Daylight Saving Time started and stopped.  They said the expanded daylight period would save energy, prevent crime, and reduce traffic accidents.  The only traffic accident I've been in since the mid 1980s was in May, well within the Daylight Saving window.  It probably happened because I sprung ahead when I should have fallen behind...

This Sunday at 1am it's going to be time to Spring Ahead.  What genius thought up this 2am thing?  Do you wait up like a crazed New Years celebrant, waiting to set your clocks ahead at 2am?  Do you know anybody that does?  Do you know anybody in Texas that does, and what time IS is in Texas, anyway?  And if it suddenly becomes 3am at 2am, do we actually have 2am that day?  Isn't it really 3am?  And if it is, we don't actually have to set the clocks ahead, because we don't actually have 2am, right?

My clock on the wall gets a radio signal from an atomic clock in Arizona or someplace, and automatically sets itself every night.  But some nights it gets confused, and I spend the day seeing the wrong time, which is any time between an hour and several hours off.  Then I have to look at my watch, or the time on the computer or on my cell phone, and I get confused as to which one is right.  After all, the clock on the wall looks so authoritative.  Even on days when it thinks its in Texas.

Now I worry that the clock will call up Arizona before 2am when we lose an hour, and then what time will it be on Sunday?  And who are 'they' anyway?  I still say I don't want to see one flake of snow if I'm going to be forced to have more sunlight to see it in.  Why do 'they' need to save daylight?  Are they hoarding it?  Why do 'they' get to tell me how much daylight I should get or what time it is in Ithaca or in Texas?  Is that why 'they' say the two things a person can't avoid in this life are death and Texas?

See what I mean?  It's just too complicated.  From this Saturday night into Sunday morning I'll probably be wide awake obsessing about this, and wondering whether I need to do anything to my clock.

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