...but I like DST. It takes an hour of daylight away from a part of the day when I wouldn't be using it anyway, and tacks it on at the end, when I can sit on the porch with a beer and a book and not have to bat moths out of my face for a whole extra hour.
But this switching back and forth stuff is for the birds...
I took a melatonin tablet last night and had a good night's sleep, didn't set any alarms, forgot to reset the clocks, and now I've effectively overslept and shot my plans for the morning down in flames. (I had been planning on going to the range this morning, but there's no way I'll have time now.) Way to get my day off to a surly start.
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I can never keep track of which is which, anyway. As for the numbers on the clock, it's all just a mass consensual hallucination anyway, much like pure fiat money systems.
"Seven O'Clock" has no real meaning outside of what people agree on it to mean. If you could get enough people to agree on it, you could roll the clock around and start the day at 0000 happening just about what we'd call 0800, now, and it wouldn't make a lick of difference, except that you'd have to get used to going to work at 0100, and the kids would never even know it was odd to call it that.
And speaking of clocks, I ended up playing midnight EMT to a rollover accident on my intersection last night, and still haven't managed to fall asleep yet, so if this comment is even more incoherent than usual... I'm blaming it on that. ;)
We will have to agree to DISAGREE on this one. I hate it and think its a stupid ploy for 'urbans' and it remains the Number One reason why I can't stand Ditch Manuels...
All The Best,
Frank W. James
I'm with you. I like DSL. Is one hour of sleep really that big a deal? I know some people who act like they can barely survive without that hour of sleep. Why the hell didn't they go to bed an hour earlier then? Things are only a big deal if they are made to be a big deal.
I want the WHOLE World on Zulu time, then we will KNOW when something is happening, not having to get it lost in translation...
If we didn't switch back and forth, I wouldn't care so much. I don't see any advantage to having 'normal' time in the winter, but DST in summer.
Frank,
I'd probably feel a lot different about it if I kept your hours, too.
And, yeah, it's definitely an artifact of the increasing urbanization of America: In a 9-to-5 world, daylight after five is a lot more useful than daylight before nine.
At the risk of being a Wookie Suiter, might I suggest playing the "How Much Does The Fed.Gov Spend On Daylight Savings Time" game?
Borepatch,
"At the risk of being a Wookie Suiter, might I suggest playing the "How Much Does The Fed.Gov Spend On Daylight Savings Time" game?"
Does it make me a wookie suiter if my reflex response is "Keep DST, ditch fed.gov?" ;)
"I ended up playing midnight EMT to a rollover accident on my intersection last night"
I always hated working the night of the time change. We'd get dispatched for a call at 0059, and arrive on scene at 0004, and be back in the station at 0059 again! The fall time change was worse, because we'd get dispatched for a call and it would take an hour for a 2 minute drive (and the shift was an hour longer than normal, too, which really sucked when it was a 24 hour shift to begin with).
I say ditch the whole bit, clocks and all.
If I were to have to choose, however, I'm with ya. DST can just become the new, full-time standard time.
Well I hope the surly goes away and you enjoy what the day will bring to you.
Jake,
I have to agree, it jacks with my department's call log in much the same way even though the dispatchers are careful to log the time change. The officers working overnight like the "work 7 get paid for 8" situation in the spring, but bitch constantly about the "work 9 get paid for 8" change in the fall.
Montie,
The problem we always had was that you usually didn't end up working both time changes, so the guys working the spring got jacked out of the extra hour's pay* and didn't get compensated for it in the spring.
*Even worse, they didn't even pay you for the 8 hours of "sleep time" at night, unless you were actually out on a call - so we had to be at work for 25 hours, and only got paid for 16 if there were no calls. We'd only get the full 24 if we were out for more than 3 hours at night. It was not the best place to work, but the best place (as you can imagine) got their pick of applicants, and had a waiting list.
I never even think of it except to think it's dumb.
WV: Magnessn. Magnes ver Magnessn has pulled the locomotive with his teeth while juggling the Africa stone
At the very least if the "savings" time is now exceeding six months should it not be the new "standard" time and the former standard time can be renamed "depressed" time?
I'm with Earl.
If governments and businesses want to start the day earlier, change the fracking start time, not the clock.
As I opined to alan at Snarkybytes:
We should have 100 hour metric days!
We can adjust our sleep cycle to match via amphetamines during the “day”, and whiskey during the “night”.
I refuse to play. There is no additional sunlight or time for sleep created by DST. Time doesn't "change".
The only clock I changed was my computer as it auto-DST'd and I had to put it back to the correct time.
"I'm with Earl.
If governments and businesses want to start the day earlier, change the fracking start time, not the clock"
Even though it amounts to almost the same thing, can you imagine the outcry? "They're making me get up an hour earlier!" (Nevermind that DST does the same thing - the general public focuses on the clock, not reality.)
vuja de all over again, eh?
And in the interest of actually *saving* some time, as opposed to gov simply *saying* so while expending untold units of it and my money to create the illusion, ditto the whole exchange from '10...and while we're at it let's go ahead and ditto it in advance for next year.
*grumblegovmanipulationandwasteandwishywashywookiesuitersgrumble*
;)
AT
In these "enlightened" times, is it still permissible to use the term "Zulu" time?
I find that hatred of DST and hatred for Mitch go hand in hand. That or there's the simpletons that don't like changing the clocks. Really, who has more than a couple of clocks that need reset anyway (minus the clock salesman)?
I'm sure there's someone somewhere with a legitimate reason for not liking it, I've just not met them.
Just keep in mind, when Ben Franklin first suggested Daylight Savings Time, it was supposed to be a joke...
No DST in AZ or HI - if only AZ weren't so insufferably hot, instead of burning-up all your money on heating bills you spend them on refrigeration.
Grandma use to make summertime appointments in "town time" or "farm time." She kept household clocks on "farm time."
Inlaws use farm time. Cows need milking same time every day and they don't recognize DST.
Some years ago, a sister told me it would take her husband an hour to reset all the timepieces in the household at every time change.
Dirt,
If you would prefer the heating bills we do have mountains here in AZ.
RTWY, Tam. I like the variety in the time, kind of like thunderstorms bringing variety to the weather.
DST drives me up the wall. I actually had someone try to explain to me this weekend that it gives you more daylight, as if DST makes the sun track slower in the sky!
CTone,
As I pointed out: If you live in the 9-5 world, DST gives you more useful daylight. The clock is just an illusion. Your waking and sleeping is not governed by the position of the sun in the sky, but by the timeclock. Daylight before you punch the clock is useless for anything but jogging; it's after you clock out that you can use daylight to actually get stuff done.
For a farmer, especially one that raises animals, solar time means something. For the rest of us, it's all just a collective thing we agree on to make sure trains don't run into each other.
So, it is just city folk/politicians doing it for their own benefit! Just as I always suspected. DST happens, the kids go to school in the dark and complain about going to bed while it is light(again), I go to work in the dark (as always) and the 9-5ers never really notice the difference. I heard once that it was just the politicians way of showing us who is in charge.
Dolan
Tam -
you may want to try ZMA as an alternative to melatonin. It tends to only be available at hippie shops, supplement shacks, and Get Huyooge Dood sort of retailers, but a lot of people get nicer, more restful sleep with fewer crazy dreams using it, and it's even more innocuous than melatonin.
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