Daylight Savings Time

I  HATE the change in time for several reasons.  First of all, my life DEPENDS on the time all day long.  But because I am always running late, I believe in the practice of setting each clock to a slightly different time to “scare” me into thinking I’m late thus allowing me to arrive barely on time.  My watch is set approximately 7 minutes ahead, the kitchen stove clock is somewhere around 10 minutes ahead, and my car clock is about 6 minutes ahead.  I say approximately and somewhere around and about because knowing exactly how far ahead each timing device is set would defeat the purpose.  I would simply calculate in my head that according to the kitchen stove it is 8:40 AM minus 10 minutes which is 8:30 meaning we are doing “good” on time and then we would be late to preschool.  I lost my watch last week and it nearly ruined me.  I had to depend on my cell phone which of course gave the exact time which got me so discombobulated I was almost late to work.   On the day after the time change I then have to wander around changing all the clocks to their new wrong times. 

It made me wonder why we even change the clocks at all.  Apparently, the idea of daylight savings was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin in 1784.  Need I remind you that this is the same man who attached a metal key to a kite and then floated it up towards a storm cloud to tease a lightning bolt?  Just sayin’. The theory is that in the summer months we move an hour of daylight to the evening so the amount of electricity used for lighting and small appliances is less (or something like that).  On the flip side, a study by Carnegie Melon University discovered that the number of pedestrians hit by cars soared at 6 PM during the weeks after the clocks were set back in the fall.  In fact, walkers are 3x more likely to be hit and killed by cars right after the time change than in the month before.  That is a 186% jump in the risk of being killed by a car for every mile walked because, the researchers speculate, the drivers go through an adjustment period when dusk arrives earlier.  Is this really worth it?!!!!

As I read on I am encouraged to learn that I am not the only one disgruntled about the time change.  A Canadian poultry producer named Marty Notenbomer complains, "The chickens do not adapt to the changed clock until several weeks have gone by, so the first week of April and the last week of October are very frustrating for us."  I am right there with ya, Marty.  No one told my “chickens” about the time change either.  When Tyler and Maddy woke up at 6 AM on Sunday they did not check their wristwatches and say, “By Jove, we still have another hour to sleep!  Let us close our eyes for a wee bit longer!”  And when the baby awoke one hour earlier than that he did not sit up in his crib and think, “Based on the sun’s position in the sky outside my bedroom window, I calculate that I have at least another hour before I will cry to get out of this soiled diaper and to have my bottle-full of breakfast escorted in for me!”

I don’t know about you guys but you are welcome to Spring Forward without me because I plan to Fall Back into my bed in exhaustion.  What I DO know is this—I am NOT going for a walk at dusk for at least another 3 weeks!