That Time of Year

You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight saving time.
— Dave Barry

I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the daylight saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.
— Robertson Davies

An extra yawn one morning in the springtime, an extra snooze one night in the autumn is all that we ask in return for dazzling gifts. We borrow an hour one night in April; we pay it back with golden interest five months later.
— Winston Churchill

It’s that time of year again, when I complain about the time change.

Less than 40% of the world changes to DST in the spring and back to standard time in the fall. In 2020, Scientific American published an article about how governments are considering abolishing it and sticking to just one time, but I’m still waiting to see this being implemented.

“Spring forward, fall back.” The fall time change isn’t so bad because we gain an hour, but I’ve yet to meet anyone who enjoys the spring, when we lose an hour.

Did you know your risk of a stroke or heart attack increases soon after a time shift? And it’s already been proven there’s an increase of traffic fatalities and other accidents due to the spring time change.

This is because it’s not just a change of an hour, it’s a misalignment of your circadian rhythm. Whenever we disrupt our circadian rhythm it increases our stress response, which in turn takes a toll on the heart and brain.

When you’re in standard time, the sun at noon (in most places) is right above your head. When you’re in daylight saving time for eight months of the year, you’re an hour off. You’re getting not enough light in the morning, and too much light in the evening. And it only gets worse when summer approaches because the days are getting longer and you’re getting light well into the evening when you should be getting less light so your body can get ready for bed.

If we do get rid of the transition, the best option is to stay on standard time, getting rid of daylight savings time. This is because light is important for our well being, our mood, and our sleep. Ask anyone whose mood is affected by too many dark days.

Getting enough light, especially in the winter, is critical. With permanent standard time we have our light in the morning, when we need it, and you have dark in the summer, when we need it. With permanent daylight saving time we get too much light too late in the evening and we have trouble falling asleep because we need the dark to create enough natural melatonin.

Unfortunately, if we do get a permanent time, daylight savings will most likely be our new standard. As far as I’m concerned it doesn’t matter as long as we stay consistent. If I can make the adjustment twice a year, I’m sure I can adjust when it’s the rest of my life.

In 2020, legislation was passed by the Ford government to do away with the time change. However, it can’t be enacted until the province of Quebec and the state of New York are ready to follow suit. And it appears the wheels of government drag very slowly.

In March of this year, the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill that “makes daylight saving time the new, permanent standard time, effective November 5, 2023,” was passed by the U.S. Senate. But it still has to make it through congress, and then the president before it can be made a law.

So cross your fingers, maybe 2023 will the last time we see the time change.

Monoculus Monday

monoculus ~ one-eyed person

I hate the time change. I don’t care if I gained an hour of sleep this time, tell it to the cats. Going to bed at “10 o’clock” instead of 11 is fine, but I’m waking up at 5 instead of 6 and as soon as I stir the cats think it’s time to be fed.

Since I’m pretty sure I go off on a rant like this every time the time changes, I’ll spare you this time – you’re welcome – but I don’t make any promises for the spring. LOL

You know how most places get several days of sun or sun and cloud and only a day or two of rain? We’ve been getting unrelenting grey with wind and rain for several weeks now, and if we’re lucky we get a token sunny day in there, but only one.

So what gives? Is it all the hurricane activity to the south? Global warning? An alien plot to drive us all crazy? Inquiring minds want to know!

I tried doing a Google search for answers, but mostly what came up was stuff about the stock market. The most interesting link I found was for a place called Gloomy Lake in Ontario. It’s way over to the west near the border between Ontario and Minnesota.

So then, being easily distracted the way I am, I started searching for information about Gloomy Lake and I have to tell you, there wasn’t much.

Then I got sidetracked by a site that claimed to offer the most depressing places in the world, so naturally I had to take a look at that. And yes, Gloomy Lake was on the list. I think, however, that the places on the list were chosen for their name only because it was filled with things like: Depressed Lake, Sad Lake, Disappointment Island, Unfortunate Cove, Crying Child Island, the Sorrow Islands, Spiteful Geyser. . . you get the idea.

And just so you know, these are all real places – I looked them up. :-D

After wasting way too much time on that (okay, so I had to force myself to stop, but I’m pretty sure I’ll revisit the search at some point) I tried to search out images for Gloomy Lake and again came up empty. There were lots of images, but none of Gloomy Lake itself. I even tried looking up satellite images, but they weren’t helpful either.

Maybe one of these days – like in the summer when we have nothing better to do and a lot of time to waste – the hubby and I can take a road trip to Gloomy Lake so I can take my own pictures. In the meantime, here’s one of the images that came up for my gloomy lake search.

Looks pretty good for a gloomy lake, don’t you think?

Metagrobolize Monday

metagrobolize ~ to mystify; to puzzle out

Everybody get their clocks adjusted on the weekend?

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one out there that hates the time change. And I don't care if the clocks are going forward or back, I hate them both. I don't know who came up with this stupid idea, but they're just ... stupid!

*lightbulb goes off over head*

I should do some research on this!

To start with, here are some facts I came up with to support my dislike of the time change:
- heart attacks increase by 10 per cent after a time change
- it not only disrupts the sleep pattern it reduces the quality of sleep
- suicide rates increase right after a time change
- there is an increase in traffic accidents just after a time change

The concept of Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise has been around since 1486, however Benjamin Franklin made the phrase popular in his "Poor Richard's Almanack" in 1739. And he is also supposedly behind the satirical suggestion in 1784 that Parisians economize on candles by getting up earlier to make better use of the daylight, the root of the daylight saving time idea.

In 1895, George Hudson, a scientist in New Zealand, proposed shifting forward two hours in October followed by two hours back in March. There was no follow-through with this idea, nor with British builder William Willett's idea of turning the clocks forward 20 minutes for each of the four Sundays in April and back again on the four Sundays in September.

I kind of like the sound of that last one, it would be so much easier to spread the time changes over several weekends.

It appears Germany was the first county to embrace daylight saving time, in 1916, to support the war effort by saving fuel. Several other European countries followed suit, but went back to standard time after the war.

Canada and the U.S. had a year-round daylight saving time during WWII, called "War Time". This went from February 9, 1942 until September 30, 1945. After that things kind of fell apart for the U.S. There were no consistent rules for DST and caused chaos with transit and the broadcasting industry. This lasted until 1966 when the Uniform Time Act was established, setting DST to begin the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October.

In an effort to conserve energy during the energy crisis, U.S. Congress extended DST to ten months in 1974 and eight months in 1975. In 1986 this was amended to have it begin on the first Sunday in April, ending on the last Sunday in October. And finally, in 2005, U.S. Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, changing the dates again. Daylight Saving Time now begins on the second Sunday in March, and ends the first Sunday in November.

So now you know. Don't you feel better?

:-D