Sunday, September 02, 2018

Daylight savings time



The Europeans are talking about going to daylight savings time forever.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My favorite day of the year is when we take the clocks off daylight savings time, although I don't change the clocks the night before, or during the night, or even the next morning. I wait until five in the afternoon, I "learn" it is only four.

Voila. I've been given another hour of life, lengthening my Sunday. It is a gift of time wrapped in a mental box with beautiful wrapping paper and tied with a ribbon.

And night comes earlier, making being cozy at home come earlier. It is also a bit lighter in the morning, although now that I no longer rush out to work, it doesn't really matter so much.

The reverse: In the spring I change the clocks so I won't feel an hour has been "stolen" from me. There's always the comfort that I will get my "stolen" hour back in the fall.

If they keep daylight savings time forever, that hour will forever be gone.

Don't bother to point out that there are still 24 hours in a day. The measurement of time is a bit artificial anyway. Before clocks were so prevalent time was more fluid. Someone might wander out into their garden to check their sundial if they had one, but mostly it was done by looking at the sky and noticing if it were light or dark, the moon was high or low in the sky. Length of days was tied into the growth of crops. In winter people had less work, in summer they could plough, weed and pick later into the day.

Now we are more time driven. An appointment slated from nine to ten, gives us time to arrange another for 10:30-11 allowing for travel time. I am Swiss enough to want to arrive on the hour and minute. Daylight savings time all year will not change that.

Sometimes I wish I could cram more into the 24 hours I've been given each day, make the most of every minute of being alive. That limit will continue daylight savings time or not.

In any case the European Union won't listen to me.


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