I can't stand daylight savings time.
It might have made sense in World War I, when many people didn't have electricity for lighting, but now it's just a major drag. "Oooh, but I like getting an extra hour of light at night." I don't. I don't like going to bed when it's still light out.
And I hate the changeover. As I get older it gets harder and harder to adapt physically to waking up an hour earlier. Study after study shows the effect of this one day on lost productivity, increased car accidents, etc.
A couple years ago I came up with a way to smooth the changeover. One week before changeover, I start setting my alarm ahead 10 minutes per day. I don't get out of bed or anything, I just set the alarm to wake me up. Ten minutes per day doesn't seem as bad as a full hour in "cold turkey" fashion, so that's how I work my way towards getting up that hour early.
When I'm elected world dictator, daylight savings time goes away.
The real fun is dealing with the change to my kids' sleep schedules (one is a toddler, the other is a preschooler).
ReplyDeleteDST may be wonderful for people with careers that get them out of the office and done for the day at 4 or 5 pm. But for me - all it means is that instead of driving to work as the sun is coming up, I'm driving to work in the dark again. And I'm getting up in the dead, cold, awful dark of night (I get up between 4:30 and 5).
ReplyDeleteI have evening commitments and I often bring work home with me, so that extra "hour" of daylight (which I consider as just having been stolen from my morning) only serves to taunt me.
I presume Congress was happy to extend DST this year because enough of them are idle enough that they can get out on the golf course in the afternoons. But for us working slobs, it's just misery.
I hate the whole changing clocks thing. Over time, different clocks in the house will be three minutes ahead or behind. I have one clock 17 minutes early.
ReplyDeleteI'm ALWAYS mentally doing that math and changing times just messes me up. I don't care if they set the clocks forward, backward, or WHATEVER. Just make it consistent.
Hey... are you going to blog about the latest California court decision against homeschoolers? Every homeschooler in bloggyland is pretty upset about it. Would you want to teach an influx of ex-homeschoolers who don't want to be there? Just curious.
This post is being considered for The Sacramento Bee's roundup of regional blogs, which appears in Forum, the Sunday commentary section.
ReplyDeleteThe Blog Watch column is limited to about 800 words. Blog posts included in the column are often trimmed to fit. The blog's main address will appear in The Bee, and the online copy of the article will contain links to the actual blog post.
If you have questions (or you DON'T want your blog post considered for inclusion in the newspaper column), contact me at greed@sacbee.com
Gary Reed
Forum Editor
As a night owl I like daylight savings time and would like to see it all year long, but I suspect morning people feel just the opposite. Having said that, I agree with you in my dislike of the changeover from one to the other. In my perfect world we would settle on one or the other and stick to it. As a side note, have you ever thought of how silly the various arguments are for switching back and forth?
ReplyDeleteChanman, I agree with you 100%. Our daughter is 18 months and time changes suck.
ReplyDeleteThat 10 minutes a day isn't a bad idea. We are trying to feed her a little earlier, but it's gonna be a mess. She is going to be wide awake when it's time for bed.
Once you rid the country of DST, can you take on the IRS next???
ReplyDeleteAnything for my loyal supporters, Lillian--that's one of the fringe benefits of being dictator!
ReplyDeleteTime for everyone to put out their lawn signs supporting Darren for Dictator. Anyone who is against the IRS will get my vote.
ReplyDeleteIn that case, I'll volunteer as Vice-Dictator! As a woman and a minority, I'm a perfect fit for the ticket!!! And I promise that my spouse won't say or do anything stupid...at least not publicly.
ReplyDeleteAs long as he keeps on singing!
ReplyDelete