Monday, March 27, 2006
DST
Once again, that stupid time of the year is upon us. Daylight Saving (not savings) Time - Spring back and Fall forward, or is Spring ahead and Fall behind - whatever... Twice a year, based on some strange supposition of energy savings, war time constraints, and what-have-you, the clocks have to be changed. This coming Sunday, at 0200 it instantly becomes 0300. Which means if you had a 0230 appointment on April 2, you're screwed.
This time changing is based on solar reasoning, not lunar, as the lunacy of it would suggest. It seems that if you move the clock ahead, the sun shines for an hour later in the evening giving us an hour more to do things that we couldn't do if it was dark. Now, I don't know about you, but the place I work at has its lights on 24/7, just like most offices these days. The energy Gestapo of today won't even make windows you can open for a breeze, let alone rooms where you can see without lights. The logic of which escapes me. Sealed windows and enclosed rooms result in such energy saving habits as having the building heat on when it's 70 degrees outside or needing to run the air conditioning when it's 55 degrees outside. Not to mention needing the light turned on at high noon.
Having been raised on a time zone border makes this whole thing about time changes and time zones a royal pain in the butt. Lets just stick with GMT. That way an appointment at 1700 is at 1700 no matter where you are. When I was growing up we used to have to add an hour to the TV listing in one newspaper to see when the show would appear on our home TV. You'd end up making statements like, "let's leave at 4.30 so we're sure to make it at 4.00." or "OK, it's 10.30 on my watch, we have just enough time to get home before 11.00, so we can catch the start of the 10.00 news." Of course, one advantage was that on December 31, we could get drunk at midnight to celebrate New Years, and then drive across the street to celebrate it at midnight an hour later all over again.
