Daylight Saving Time
Here we are again, Daylight Saving Time begins tomorrow. Sigh. What that means specifically for me is that I will once again have to wait for the sun to come up in the mornings before Mulder and I go for our walk for a little while, until Earth tilts enough that it gets light earlier again. Of course it also means being confused and discombobulated for a few days, maybe a week, and the dog being confused about meal times, all of that. Mostly I like Daylight Saving, and prefer the lighter evenings.
California voters passed a resolution in 2018 to stay on DST all year, but it hasn’t made its way through our legislature yet, and requires Federal approval from Congress. There is a bipartisan measure, the Sunshine Protection Act, that could bring relief from the stupidness of switching back and forth, we shall see what happens with that. If that were to happen, there would be months when I could not take Mulder for his walk before I start work at 8am, which is a small price to pay. I guess I would have to take him in the dark, or perhaps on my lunch break. One of my coworkers walks her dog during the day, but she doesn’t go for as long as we like to. I like to go to the grocery store sometimes on my lunch hour. It’s pretty much impossible to make me completely happy, I guess, because here I am, finding something inconvenient about something as nice as getting rid of a stupid practice.
Edited to add this opinion piece in The NY Times, which argues that morning light in the winter and evening light in summer is actually pretty popular, even though the time changes are difficult.
Do you enjoy Daylight Saving Time? If it is adopted all year, will it be inconvenient for you to have it dark in the mornings for longer?
6 Comments
Martha
I hate the time change, it always messes me up for weeks!
J
Agreed, it is horrible. I’m not entirely sure about getting rid of it, though, I’m feeling wishy washy about it…
nance
I don’t care which one we land on; I just want someone to pick one and stick with it. I cannot believe that in the year 2021, we still perform such an archaic task as changing clocks two times a year. This has been studied and shown to have a deleterious effect on any number of areas of life. I don’t get it. Standard or Daylight Saving, JUST. PICK. ONE.
J
Nance, I KNOW. And yet…and yet. The NY Times article I mentioned says that twice we have gotten rid of it, and people hated it and wanted the sun in the morning in winter, and wanted sun in the evenings in the summer, so demanded that it come back. We shall see, if the measure that Rubio has presented to the Senate goes through, whether people decide they absolutely hate the dark dark dark of the winter mornings. That is what has me feeling all wishy washy. I don’t like the idea of waking up and starting work in the dark. I guess if it were to go one way or the other, I would vote for standard time, though choosing between the two, I mostly prefer daylight saving time. I know, I’m a contrarian.
Danielle Zecher
I’m not a big fan of the weekend the time actually changes, but I love Daylight Savings Time. I love, love, love the longer days and having more light after work.
J
Danielle, ME TOO! I adore it. But when I think about it, I actually also love having some sun in the mornings in winter, so I think I’m leaning more toward keeping this damned stupid system we have in place. Sigh. And yeah, that week after the change gets harder as I get older. (It wasn’t hard for me this year, since I had insomnia the night of the change, so I woke up really early which made me tired early and got me on track. Not sure how you plan for that.)