This time change, unlike most, has me a bit on edge…
March 10, 2007, 10:17 AM
Unless you live in Arizona, the United States changes its clocks twice a year – once in the beginning of April and once at the end of October, going onto and off of daylight savings. Okay. Routine. Now, however, with this new energy bill that got passed, it’s the middle of March that we go onto daylight savings, and early November (I believe) that we go back to standard time. As a result, it just seems awfully early to be changing over to daylight savings, partly because it is.
Usually this is so routine. We change the clocks and I’m like, okay. And life goes on. But due to the earlier date, I’m running myself ragged on it. I’m fairly confident that my computers will change on their own, and I’m also confident that my cell phone will change on its own. I’ve already changed my alarm clock. Still, I’ve been obsessing over this, worried that somehow I’ll have forgotten to change something, and end up late for work tomorrow.
This, folks, is a partial explanation as to why I’ve found a few hairs coming in white as of late. I’m running myself silly over smaller issues.
Still, I feel I have a valid concern, but I also don’t quite see the point of changing the dates that we change our clocks. I think we gained some three weeks and a whole lot of frustration. Of course, I’d also say that if our government is going to start engaging in “daylight savings creep”, they should just save us the trouble and have daylight savings time year-round. That would be wonderful to never have to “spring forward” or “fall back” again. It’s a pain in the butt to have to change everything. Think about Mom, who has fifteen bazillion clocks in the house, many of which make noise (to my dismay), and they all have to get reset.
Personally, I certainly could use that hour of light in the evening rather than in the morning, especially on the days when I go to Washington. Having more daylight when I’m actually in the area is more helpful than having it in the early morning during my ride up. After all, a majority of the drive on my DC trips is done in the dark as it is. I leave the house before sunrise (I usually clear Harrisonburg while it’s still dark, and it’s light out by the time I reach Mt. Jackson), and then the entire return trip is in the dark. But an extra hour of sunlight during the day means it’s lighter out when I’m leaving the Infoshop (on those trips where it’s part of the itinerary), and it means it’s still light when I reach Alexandria.
So that’s my two (or three or four) cents on the whole change of the time change. We’ll ultimately make it through this just fine, but I’m stressing over it.
Web site: Standardtime.com, which proposes ending DST altogether.
Song: Some old MIDI file from the mid-1990s.
Quote: By the way, Schumin Web turns eleven this month...