Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday Morning

[StillShaving]

I will happily vote for the Party of record that gets RID of this useless anachronism.

Wasn't there a semi-serious proposal to make DST standard year round? It already is in effect for nearly 2/3 of the year here (March 10 - November 3), so it is not a bad idea. For the past couple of years I have left a couple of watches running on DST year round to avoid resetting them. Still the whole concept of DST is silly on some level, as "we" could all just informally agree to start work an hour earlier, go to lunch an hour earlier, etc.

This is a radical idea, but I would not be upset if everything operated on a type of UTC/GMT time, so that the time reference was the same worldwide. Then leave it up to each locality to judge their local noon and midnight relative to that. I imagine this is what people China and India might do with their wide time zones which don't match astronomical time very well. Where high noon is not very close to their 12 o'clock.

 

[Raissermesser]

This is a good assessment:

Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for March 11, 2019 | GoComics.com

 

[Raissermesser]

Wasn't there a semi-serious proposal to make DST standard year round? It already is in effect for nearly 2/3 of the year here (March 10 - November 3), so it is not a bad idea. For the past couple of years I have left a couple of watches running on DST year round to avoid resetting them. Still the whole concept of DST is silly on some level, as "we" could all just informally agree to start work an hour earlier, go to lunch an hour earlier, etc.

This is a radical idea, but I would not be upset if everything operated on a type of UTC/GMT time, so that the time reference was the same worldwide. Then leave it up to each locality to judge their local noon and midnight relative to that. I imagine this is what people China and India might do with their wide time zones which don't match astronomical time very well. Where high noon is not very close to their 12 o'clock.

We lived through the stupidity of DST the entire year. It didn't work well at all. Children attending school in the dark in the Lower 48 was not popular. Then there were the aforementioned farm chores. Very clearly remember going into an unlit barn to load bails of hay on the back of a truck (back then, the small, square, bails where common; the big round bails hadn't come around yet).

The idea of local noon is attractive, but it makes coordination a problem unless you stick with UTC. Even with local noon there's a catch: The sun isn't always on the meridian at the same time each day. Local noon can vary several minutes, the amount of which doesn't spring to my caffeine deprived mind just now.

 

[Rushman2112]

I shall be pleased when UK is back on BST as it'll mean they are only 7 hours behind me and rugby matches on TV will be earlier so I stand a chance of still being awake when they end. Oh, and my London colleagues will have a bigger window to call me in!

 

[TexLaw]

I will go to bed after being up for 15 hours instead of the normal 16 hours. That’s an extra hour of sleep.

You didn't gain an hour of sleep; you lost an hour of being awake. You slept and will sleep the same eight hours. It was a 23-hour "day."

 

[TexLaw]

We lived through the stupidity of DST the entire year. It didn't work well at all. Children attending school in the dark in the Lower 48 was not popular.

Indeed. California might be able to get away with it since they are fairly well centered on the longitude line, but I still wonder how many thought it through when they voted on going year-long.

It only started getting light around 7:30, this morning. It wouldn't start getting light until after 8:00 during the middle of Winter if we were to go (back) to year-long DST. Go further west in the Central time zone, and that gets close to 8:30.

 

[Raissermesser]

The Big Misconception is that DST saves energy. It doesn't. At best it shifts load by one hour; at worst, as in DST the entire year, it uses more due to heating and lighting more in the morning. That was the excuse when the US last tried DST the entire year, it was in the 1970s and the "Energy Crises," precipitated by the Arab Oil Embargo.

Will note that none have raised the energy argument here, and have voiced support for DST as a matter of preference. That's a different thing entirely.

 

[Doc4]

Will note that none have raised the energy argument here, and have voiced support for DST as a matter of preference. That's a different thing entirely.

I have heard a bunch of explanations over the years as to why, supposedly, DST was started in the first place. None seem to totally make sense or have the full backing of historians as the actual answer.

A country with DST is kind of like the story of the mule with a spinning wheel ... nobody knows how he got it, and danged if he knows how to use it.

Since nobody except farmers get up at 4am every day, we "waste" the early morning sunshine in the summer by sleeping through it, so why not stick an hour of it onto the end of daylight instead? Days in the winter are too short for this to have a positive effect, so ... stick with normal time then. This seems to be "the best and only" reason to keep DST around. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with it ... but I think we're all pretty well able to figure out that this is where the debate takes place.

 

[Doc4]

When we tried the DST the whole year stupidity in the 1970s, trying to tend to farm chores in the dark totally sucked.

Not sure I follow you here ... surely a farm runs on its own time, not a slave to them silly writsband contraptions cityfolk wear and live their lives by. Either you can get the chores done in the daylight that God or Nature provides or you can't ... and do some in the dark. It's more about the seasons than about an hour-shift. Or am I missing something?

 

[Raissermesser]

Not sure I follow you here ... surely a farm runs on its own time, not a slave to them silly writsband contraptions cityfolk wear and live their lives by. Either you can get the chores done in the daylight that God or Nature provides or you can't ... and do some in the dark. It's more about the seasons than about an hour-shift. Or am I missing something?

City folk tend to miss a great deal about country life. Farming involves more than tilling and feeding livestock. You often have places to go and people to see, and they operate by the clock. Such as a trip to buy tractor parts, or feed, seed, and fertilizer. There's also that thing known as other employment. Best I can recall the day in question, we had somewhere else to be before noon that day, and cows get hungry regardless, and that meant we couldn't wait until the sun was up that day. It's not fun going into a barn in the dark to load hay by hand, particularly when it's not quite cold enough for snakes to hibernate, not to mention other critters who don't, anyway. Like the time my father almost put his hand on a rattlesnake.

Of course, most city folks haven't experienced that, and most don't care, anyway.

 

[Doc4]

Of course, most city folks haven't experienced that, and most don't care, anyway.

Thanks for clarifying. Put me in the category "hasn't experienced, but does care".

 

[Traveling Man]

It's funny how the same group of us have this same debate twice a year.
I'll see you boys in November!

 

[garyg]

It's funny how the same group of us have this same debate twice a year.
I'll see you boys in November!

Wish it were otherwise, one way of the other ..

 

[natenaaron]

I’m in the part of AZ that does not change. It only bothers me when I have to travel over the Utah line.

 

[Toothpick]

I must be one of the few that doesn’t care. Once a year I loose an hour of sleep. Once a year I gain an hour of sleep. Really makes no difference to me. And now that 99% of clocks are electronic I don’t have to even change them back/forward. My phone does it automatically, which is what I use for an alarm clock. So really...who cares. This year I actually FORGOT about DST. Sure enough, woke up on time anyway because my phone didn’t forgot. Never felt it affect me at all.

Loose an hour, gain an hour, I really don’t give a flying crap. It’s the same ole argument year after year. Does not affect me one bit. My phone or Apple Watch will tell me the time whatever “they” decide it is.

 

[oc_in_fw]

I must be one of the few that doesn’t care. Once a year I loose an hour of sleep. Once a year I gain an hour of sleep. Really makes no difference to me. And now that 99% of clocks are electronic I don’t have to even change them back/forward. My phone does it automatically, which is what I use for an alarm clock. So really...who cares. This year I actually FORGOT about DST. Sure enough, woke up on time anyway because my phone didn’t forgot. Never felt it affect me at all.

Loose an hour, gain an hour, I really don’t give a flying crap. It’s the same ole argument year after year. Does not affect me one bit. My phone or Apple Watch will tell me the time whatever “they” decide it is.

I don’t care much either. What I do like is that it reminds me that winter is almost over, and it isn’t going to be dark as much. The only thing that I don’t like about winter (they are mild here) is lack of sunshine.