As some comedian once said, the principle behind Daylight Savings Time is the same as the belief that you can get taller by cutting off your head and then standing on it.
[pause to let that visual dissipate]
Let me tell you why I hate this bloody nonsense with a passion.
- We have, in our little abode, well over a dozen clocks which do not self-adjust like laptops or smartphones do (I like and collect clocks). This means that twice a year I have to prowl around the house like a hyena seeking a dead zebra, rooting out clocks and changing the damn hour hand or else pushing buttons on electric alarm clocks etc. “Pain in the ass” barely begins to cover it. And somehow, I always manage to miss one, which causes me aggravation later (could be a week later) when I discover the omission.
- Because we are an international family, with friends and family scattered all over the globe, I have had to resort to stern measures to keep up with this situation, ergo a wall decoration in the living room:
I think you can see the problem, can’t you? The U.S. and the U.K. change their times on different dates, South Africa only uses one time (gawd knows how much they’d fuck up changing clocks and times… they operate on “African time” as it is), and as for Australia it’s even worse: some states observe DST while others choose not to.
As I am a man of advanced age, little brain and severe deficiency in patience, I think you’ll get where I’m going with this.
I’m always reminded of the classic exchange from Cheech & Chong:
“Hey, hippie… wanna buy a watch?”
“Uuuhhhhh… no, man; I’m not into time.”
Wish I could be that way.
Last fall we went someplace in my 18 year old 15mpg beater pickup a week or so after the time change. Wife looked at the clock readout on the $59.95 aftermarket noise maker in the dash and said “You need to change the clock in your radio” I’d lost the instructions for the radio back when Obummer was president but seemed to remember that changing the clock involved simultaneously pushing four buttons that were too small for the human hand, turning three knobs, and making a sacrifice to the time gods. So I replied “We both wear watches. Yours changes automagically. I can change the old style analog dial in mine with no problem. Let’s not look at the clock in the truck for the next six months.” After the knot on my head healed I discovered that you can find instructions for those older electronics on line. Now I have to mess with it again to get it back to where it was six months ago.
Same problem here. Three wind-ups. One hourly Grandfather clock. One Big Ben bracket clock. One ships bells clock vintage 1930s. The other are older. Spring “forward” is not as bad as Fall “back” in that these clocks can’t be adjusted backwards. The first two have pendulums that can be stopped, but the ship’s bell one cannot be stopped. One electric clock with chimes that I lost the instructions for. My daily driver just came back from an extensive and expensive trip to Ye Olde Kraut Car Shoppe. Where they’d not reset the clock after disconnecting the battery and removing the engine. It thought it was 2003.
But my worst encounter with good old DST came a while back when I bought one of those clocks that claim to do it for you. I opened the box and there was a note concerning the proposed change in DST rules. Sure enough when the new rules went into effect I had not only to change to/from DST on the new rules, I had to undo it under the old rules. In other words I had to touch the clock four times a year rather than none.
It is a well known meme in the IT world that any action you are required to do at intervals longer than a month or so, like changing passwords, requires retraining.
Ah, yes, the semi annual bitching about DST.
Unless you’re a drill sergeant or a farmer and LOVE the idea of waking up at 0430, DST makes perfect sense.
I don’t know about you, but I’d MUCH rather have an hour of daylight from 7:00 to 8:00 PM when I can use it rather than from 4:00 to 5:00 AM when I’m still asleep.
I don’t mind cold weather (Much) but I sure hate it when I leave the office at 5:00 PM in November or December and it’s already dark outside.
Fine. Let’s stay with DST year round then. I don’t really care which one, just pick one and stay with it!
I remember in my commuting days (which ended 11 months ago) I HATED winter when I’d go all week without seeing the sun (I generally didn’t go out at lunch time, and it would be dark when I got to work in the morning and again when I left in the evening).
I live in Alaska. In 4 weeks it will no longer get dark so just what in hell am I “saving” here?? When the time changed last weekend, it was light by 7 AM and didn’t get dark until close to 8PM. Please…for te love of all that’s holy…just what is the point, Juneau????
When stationed at Elmendorf, and working rotating shifts, the only sun I saw in the winter was on the Swing-shift when I got up at 1200.
On the Graveyard, I was usually in bed by sun-up.
I too worked a night shift once. I could go a week without seeing the sun.
Completely agree with all of the above!