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Daylight Savings Time – Bah, Humbug!

by Jon Buzby

I’m not going to bore you with how daylight savings time evolved.  You can Google that at 5pm some November night when it’s too dark to cut the grass.  Instead I need to ask, why do we change the clocks back every October?  If it was that important wouldn’t every country in the world do it (less than half do)?  And wouldn’t most of us like it (research shows 70% don’t)?

Sure, in October that initial Sunday morning with an extra hour of sleep is priceless.  That is of course unless you have kids.  They don’t seem to give a darn about that extra hour.  To them, it means seeing that cartoon they normally don’t wakeup in time to watch ~ with you of course.

One would argue that with the sun coming up an hour earlier every morning, less lights are turned on and therefore more energy is saved.  But aren’t those same lights turned on an hour earlier in the evening

I don’t mind when it’s dark while I’m trying to sleep at 6a.m., but when I’m trying to unload the groceries out of the packed trunk at 5p.m. after work, a little daylight would mean less cracked eggs. 

Maybe we change the clocks back in October to make it dark earlier so our kids come inside to study.  As if the thirty-five degree temps don’t do that?  And as if they come in and study.  We turn the clocks back, we don’t turn the TVs or computers off.

The most valuable thing we all get out of daylight savings time is using it as a reminder to change the batteries in our smoke alarms twice a year.  I, for one, would be willing to come up with an alternative.  How about the 4th of July and New Years Eve?  Fireworks and exploding corks ~ both make me think of smoke and fire.

I would think it is safer to drive to work in the dark after a good night’s sleep than it is to commute home in the dark after a long, tiring day.  I wonder if the road rage incidents increase in October when it is dark for the evening commute.   And the worst part is that is when Santa is watching us the closest.

And speaking of jolly St. Nick, coming all the way from the North Pole, maybe he needs that extra hour of darkness to get an early start to make his travels all the way around the world and that is why the clocks change back every fall before the holidays.  If he has one less hour of darkness just think about those kids in South America who won’t get any gifts under their tree. 

Somebody must agree.  This year they are extending daylight savings time by about a month. My presumption is that won’t make changing the clock on my car radio any easier.

But I guess with that extra month of daylight savings time students’ grades will go up, road rage will cease, yards will look immaculate and all dozen eggs will arrive safely to the kitchen. 

Actually, my guess is not. 

Maybe it’s much simpler than all this.  Maybe it’s the Grinch promoting year round daylight savings time to decrease Santa’s delivery time?

Editor’s Note: Daylight savings time begins this Sunday at 2 a.m. Jon Buzby is a freelance writer, who’s articles have published in more than 30 newspapers and magazines as well as numerous websites. He can be contacted at <jonbuzby@hotmail.com>.

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