I am going to start filtering some of my more private musings. Since blogger does not have a tool for that, you will need to visit my Live Journal and ask to be friended there. I will continue to post Daily Gratitude and other subjects here. There is also a FAQ for my Journal at the same link.
f***ing daylight "savings" time
| Wednesday, April 05, 2006 @ 12:33 Setting aside the insanity that is measured time, there is nothing worse than abruptly changing time. While I grew up on the "spring forward/fall back" mantra, I was spoiled by five years living in the "DS"-free world that is Arizona. Sure, it was inconvenient to have to figure out whether Mom was one or two hours ahead depending on the season. And it was annoying that our cable programming shifted twice a year and we had to change our watching and taping schedules. The important thing was that time continued in a "natural" pace. Days slowly got longer then shorter then longer again in a constant, gradual cycle. Saturday night I tried to prepare boy for "losing" an hour of his life. Luckily, he didn't have to work the morning shift, so he was able to sleep a bit longer. However, I forgot to prepare him for the more important adjustment of daylight itself-- mostly because I'd forgotten how jarring it is. Sunday night we went to a movie and were indoors during the crucial sunset hours. Monday we slept in later than usual and missed sunrise. By Monday night, however, we realized there was something seriously wrong with our world. We were running errands at 7:30 pm and it was full on daylight. Saturday night it was already evening by 7:30. This caused a serious disconnect for both of us. Tuesday morning the alarm went off at 5:30 so boy could be to work by 7am. I am used to getting up around 6am to early light and sunrise. Only it was dark. It was barely light when boy left for work at 6:30am. How are we supposed to wake up when there isn't sun? And how do we convince our bodies that it is perfectly natural that the sun rose at 6:15 last week and at 7:12 today? If I am having this much trouble after five years of "standard time" how the hell is boy supposed to adapt after an entire lifetime? We figured out that he has never had to "spring forward" in his life. And when we moved here last fall, we were so topsy turvy from moving time zones, road travel, unpacking, etc. that we didn't notice the "fall back" moment. This is a "first" in his life that we both could have done without. My mom made a comment last week that it helps the farmers to have that extra daylight to work in the fields. I pointed out that the sun appears the same number of hours whether it's "daylight saving" or "standard" time. DST is yet another reason to hate our economic model. DST evolved from "war time" which allowed factories to stay open later in the day without having to turn on lights. If women were working 8am-8pm and the last two hours are in daylight instead of darkness, that saved resources for the war effort. (Why they just couldn't shift to working 6am-6pm, I don't know.) Today we have the illusion that once we get off work at 5pm, we have "extra" hours to enjoy our summer. And it's a bonus that only workers get! After all, the farmer works sun up to sun down and bankers & managers make their own hours no matter the season. So, let's trick our minds while we f*** up the rhythms of our bodies. Pretty much sums up life in the modern world.
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