Saturday, March 8, 2008

Daylight saving WHOSE time?


June wrote on her blog Spatter: "Twice a year we adjust our clocks to suit our needs and desires. And why not...after all, time is relative."

Why not? Because it's a sneaky plot by folks with October birthdays, that's why not! Back when (that's a time a few decades ago), time changed near the end of April every year. Can you guess whose birthday is near the end of April? Yes! You guessed correctly. And then it happened. The dreaded day of "spring forward" came and devoured an hour of MY day ... MINE. "Spring forward" is a sneaky way of saying "lose an hour of sleep" on that single day of the year. People would be late for church. They'd be cranky from losing an hour of sleep. And it happened on what was supposed to be my joyful day ... MINE.

So I wrote a short article about it. (I'm a wordsmith, so what else would you expect me to do?)

I entitled it "Daylight saving WHOSE time?" I had done my research well and had discovered the guilty party (parties?) who had stolen that hour from me: somebody whose birthday came in October, that's who! It was a revelation I wanted the world to know. It was unfair. Unfair, I tell you! Those folks in October got an extra hour every year ... by stealing it from April. And they already HAD a 31-day month.

Everyone knows that February is the shortest month of the year, but few realized that taking an hour from April (currently it's March who's being victimized) meant that April had become the second shortest month of the year. Short-changed by an hour, we had only 29 days and 23 hours. October, shiny and bright with its orange and red leaves, had become the longest month of the year with its 31 days plus one hour.

Now I ask you, is that fair? No! A resounding "NO"! And I've been campaigning for years to get back that hour of my birthday. Why, I even stayed up until two o'clock on that October Sunday to enjoy MY hour! It was a bit dark, and all that, but by golly I enjoyed every minute of it.
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Thanks to June (Spatter) for today's blogging topic. In the United States, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the days of DST to add four more weeks, so DST now starts on the second Sunday in March and lasts until the first Sunday in November. When I wrote my article, DST started on the last Sunday in April and lasted until the last Sunday in October.
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"...last ... lasted ... last..." Did I really say that? Edited version: DST started at 2:00 a.m. on the final Sunday in April and continued until 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was LOL reading this!

I always thought they picked October for "falling back" because of everyone wanting it to get dark early on Halloween. I guess by 2005, they figured trick or treaters doesn't matter any more since most trick or treating is done inside malls these days.

Chrisbookarama said...

Well, happy birthday anyway ;) You could always move to Saskatchewan.

CJ said...

What's totally amazing about the Energy Policy Act is that those nitwits in Congress did it as a move to help save energy. Oh, yeah, right. I'm saving a bunch. I don't have to turn my lights on as early in the evening, but it was once again dark outside when I left for work this morning. Not much of a trade!

cjh

Bonnie Jacobs said...

My daughter's response to this yesterday (Sunday) was: "You need to get a life." When I first wrote "Daylight saving WHOSE time?" in the 1970s, I had a life ... raising her! She and her twin sister and their brother were all still children, so writing humorous pieces (a la Erma Bombeck) probably saved my sanity, whatever I have left of it after raising three kids.

Thanks, Chris, I may do that. Tell me some of the wonderful things about Saskatchewan, please.

kenju said...

Bonnie, thanks for the visit and comments. I enjoyed reading this, and since I was born in October, I suppose your wrath is directed at me....LOL

I may not enjoy losing that hour in March, but I sure do enjoy getting it back in Oct.!