As
I sit to write this, it has been less than twelve hours since
the clocks officially switched.
Like
most people, I used my extra hour of sleep from the “fall back”
change productively. That’s sarcasm. I woke up around the time
I usually do, which essentially meant an hour earlier than I wanted
to be awake. Just the way we all want to start off any morning.
The
thing is, losing or gaining an hour really doesn’t change the
world much for me. I need to switch the times on a few of our
clocks, but the rest is over fairly quickly. It might take me
a few mornings, but eventually I’ll adjust and things will return
to normal. Tigg and I don’t have specific routines as far as a
bedtime or such, but the basic patterns of reading or watching
television transitions to settling in for the night. Standard
stuff… and all becomes the usual without much effort.
The
more striking part of the Daylight Savings on and off switches
for me is usually sunset. Here in November, it’s suddenly darker
an hour earlier. Headlights on when they hadn’t been needed on
a regular basis for more than half the year. But again, I don’t
know if that changing of the clocks and swing of an hour is the
biggest change for me.
Around
here, it isn’t uncommon to be able to do things outside without
lights until 9pm or later in the summer. I recall being on the
highway once in early July a few years back, driving to meet up
with Terry, and it was well after 8:30pm before I first saw any
lit headlights on cars driving in the other direction. And although
I had switched mine on, I was a bit stunned at how long the surroundings
remained bathed in daylight.
The
summer months seem made for after dinner events. You can eat a
late meal and still have time to mow the lawn. No worries about
being able to see everything as you water the garden. Still, I
tend to notice when the sunset just before 9pm becomes 8:30… 8:30
becomes 8… 8 creeps toward 7. The fact remains, summer has drawn
to a close, regardless of any days in the fall of unexpected warmth,
when sunlight determines what you can or cannot get completed
outdoors on any day.
The
outdoor seasons end long before daylight savings ends. The day
was already significantly shorter before clocks needed tending
and things jumped by an hour.
I’ve
never given much thought to the adjustments of the clock in my
daily life. About the only thing it made any significant contributions
toward involved the school calendar. Kids are the ones moving
around 7am as far as our household schedules, going all the way
back to my youth. Standing at the bus stops before sunrise… yeah…
the movement of an hour matters. But for most other things, at
least the indoor things, not so much. I’ve never been an early
to bed, early to rise, the sunrise and sunset determines my ability
to get everything done so make the most of every moment of daylight
person. (Again… garden excluded.)
It
doesn’t really change the ideas of how much fuel we burn heating
the house, or when we turn lights off or on to see inside. In
fact, even though I mentioned things like summer activities and
noticing the position of the sun, the reality is I’m not looking
to mow the lawn in January or February. The beginning and end
of Daylight Savings Time really isn’t the dynamic change to my
schedule that it might appear it should be.
I
have family in Australia though. For those of you that might not
know, out there they spring back and fall forward. (Actually,
they don’t. Their seasons are essentially opposite to those of
us in America. That means they also spring forward and fall back.
But since it’s me reading the clock, and I need to adjust my thoughts
about making calls or expecting to see texts from them, the joke
works.) They also don’t adjust their clocks on the same dates.
The end result are these staged two-hour swings that take roughly
a month to complete.
If
you want to know my opinion on whether or not we need to continue
with Daylight Savings or bring it to an end, I’m completely without
a care. Heck, thanks to the location abilities of my phone and
even the GPS unit, I don’t need to make an adjustment when I move
in and out of certain time zones. (Technology is such a wonderful
thing.)
Unless
I’m up for a major move twice a year, I’m not going to be able
to secure those early sunrises and late sunsets for the entire
calendar run. I don’t see that happening (at least not any time
soon).