There is something about Daylight Savings Time (DST) that turns me off. As I understand it, the time change we experienced at 2:00 a.m. this morning is supposed to:
1. Provide us with an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day2. Save energy (electricity) by our not having to turn on our lamps as early as we normally would have.
Well, that extra hour of daylight doesn’t help me today; it has been raining with thunder and lightening for more than an hour. Alex and I went for a walk prior to the start of the rain; 
however, as soon as the first drops fell, I saw a white body followed by a black tail streak toward our front porch. For a while, Alex did his I hate the rain-thing and sat in the doorway watching the water he despises fall from the sky. He finally gave up, stuck his claws into my leg to inform me he wanted dinner, and is now well fed and curled up taking his afternoon catnap. It is still light outside—and it is still raining.
Back to Daylight Savings Time. Perhaps one of the reasons I have problems with it is that, for eleven years, I lived in a southern Indiana county that never observed it, The county remained on Eastern Standard time all twelve month of the year. That caused me some problems. If I had a meeting to attend in, for example, Louisville, I had to determine what time it was. During Daylight Savings time, Louisville was an hour earlier than my county. However, the rest of the year, Louisville and my home were on the same time. It got even more confusing if I went to another Indiana county; back in those days 77 of the state's 92 counties were in the Eastern Time Zone but did not change to daylight time in 
April. Instead they remained on standard time all year. That is, except for two counties near Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky, which did use Daylight Savings Time. But the counties in the northwest corner of the state (near Chicago) and the southwestern tip (near Evansville), which are in the Central Time Zone,
Confusing? You bet!
Well, that’s all changed—although it really makes no difference to me since I’ve lived in Louisville for almost ten years. In April 2005, the Indiana legislature passed a law agreeing to observe daylight saving time throughout the state. I wonder how my friends in Perry County, Indiana,--where they never observed Daylight Savings Time, have liked that.
The interesting thing is, just a few months after Indiana got in step with the rest of the United States, the federal government announced a major change in Daylight Saving Time. In Aug. 2005, Congress passed an energy bill that included extending Daylight Saving Time by about a month. Beginning in 2007, Daylight Savings Time will begin the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November. That will give all of us another couple of weeks of DST to love—or to hate.
I really don't see the point to it all. So tomorrow morning it will be dark when I get up and when Steve goes to bed he still sees light in the sky and doesn't think he should be going to be yet...Yeah I don't like it much. 8)
ReplyDeleteDaylight savings time doesn’t faze me. I understand from the news that your part of the country received more than just rain. Did the tornadoes hit anywhere near you?
ReplyDeleteIm at work and it will be a while until I adjust to the time change.
ReplyDeleteInteresting practice you guys have, nick. This is unheard of in this part of the world
ReplyDeleteWe just turned our clocks back on Saturday night / Sunday morning, so our Daylight Savings is over. I was amazed at how early it is now getting dark ... by 6.30pm. Come Winter, it will be just before 6pm. It is nice, though, that it is now no longer dark when I get up in the morning.
ReplyDeleteHope you have a great week, take care, Meow
I wish they'd just leave the clocks alone. If there is really a savings to be had, businesses can adjust their hours.
ReplyDeleteDST benefits commerce. It does not benefit farmers, students, or the average working people.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first year I've had to deal with DST since I was 6 or 7. Don't know why we changed then and don't know why we changed now, except we have the first Republican governor in 16 years so he thought that was the most revolutionary change he could make in Indiana?
ReplyDeleteThen yesterday we forgot it was changing at 2 A.M. on Sunday and Mr. Wonderful was nearly late to church....and my Sprint PCS phone didn't automatically change until about 10:10. Weird.
At least Mr. Wonderful and I can continue to wander about downtown Indy until 10:00 p.m. and it will still be light enough to look the vagrants in the eye and tell them we still don't have spare change for them ;-)
oh, and frank40299 is absolutely correct...that's likely why our Republican governor passed the new bill. meh.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was born, Louisville was in the Central time zone, as was the area where I now live. Being changed to the Eastern zone is like DST already. So when they add DST to it, it becomes ridiculous. I hate getting up that one hour earlier. It's dark most of the year when I go to work and in the summer it's light until after 10. I wouldn't mind DST if they'd switch us back to the Central time zone. Ain't gonna happen, though.
ReplyDelete