Daylight Saving Time

By | March 2, 2017
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Cloudeight Essay Daylight Saving Time

I just learned this year that calling Daylight Saving Time, “Daylight Savings Time”, with an S is, incorrect. They say it makes me look like an idiot to everyone who knows it’s correctly called Daylight Saving Time.

Look here: “Daylight Savings Time is a misspelling, but more common than the correct term. Setting our clocks 1 hour forward in the spring is often referred to as “Daylight Savings Time” even though “Daylight Saving Time” is the correct spelling…”  From https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/daylight-savings-time.html 

I’m tired of being corrected, I tells ya. So, not wanting to look like an idiot or a fool, anymore than I usually do, I’ve called this piece Daylight Saving Time. That should appease those who look for perfection – although I can’t promise anywhere near perfection for what lies ahead.

And if you’re thinking I’m going to remind you to set your clocks ahead an hour, I’m not. It’s not time yet. I think that would be a week from this coming Sunday – if you’re thinking that far ahead. A lot can happen between now and a week from this coming Sunday.

I used to hate the day when we set the clocks ahead an hour. For I was one who loved to skulk around in the dark; to me Daylight Saving Time was anathema. I used to enjoy taking walks in the dead dark of night and seeing that everyone was snug in their homes – it was comforting. I once traipsed through nearby  neighborhoods in brand-spankin’-new Cat’s Pause® walking shoes. OK, so they’re expensive and hard to find – but everyone deserves to splurge a little… even if you’re broke.

So, I urge you to splurge before your dirge.

I know that sounds morose, morbid and melancholy, but it’s true. And what better reminder is there than the hourglass metaphor;  each one of us has an hourglass with our name on it – and the sand is running out.

Don’t be angry with me – it’s a fact of life. When that last grain of sand slides down the tube, it’s lights out and you’ll never get another chance to splurge on this earth. So, I say…

Splurge before your dirge.

Anyway, Daylight Saving Time use to be a sad time for me – no more long nights of darkness; no more nightly walks skulking through murky, gloomy, silent streets alone with my thoughts.

I don’t feel that way anymore. Back when I used to enjoy those stealthy walks through the cloaking black veil of night, I used to be able to stay awake past 10:00 PM. Back in the day, I had time to enjoy good books and good movies before turning in for the night. So, I used to love the dark and gloom and the shadows and all the murky things borne on the black wings of night.

But not anymore.

In the fall and winter, when we are on Standard Time, I can hardly stay awake past 9:00 o’clock. It gets dark around here between 4:45 and 5:30 PM. That means by the time the clock strikes nine,  the night has shrouded the world in gloomy, melancholy darkness for four full hours by then.

If I start to read and the book – or tablet- no matter how exciting or good, inevitably  it plummets from my hand to the floor, waking me and startling me with its ominous crash. I can manage only 2 or 3 pages each evening. At that rate it takes me 4 months to read a 350-page novel. So a book I start in November, I don’t finish until March. By then, I can’t remember what it’s about.

And movies? Let me tell you about movies.  No matter how good the movie, I end up falling asleep before it’s even half over. I fall asleep in my old-man’s recliner with my neck crooked at an amusingly odd angle — according to those who’ve witnessed it — and the remote clutched in my hand. I don’t sleep very long before I wake up with a start and a sore neck, and fingers so stiff I have to pry them off the remote.

So, yes, I look forward to Daylight Saving Time these latter years. Don’t give me the hooey about losing an hours sleep. I lose more than an hour’s sleep every night getting up and going to the bathroom, or getting a drink, or rolling around on the bed trying to find a position where my aging carcass feels comfortable enough to go to sleep.  So don’t ever tell me you don’t like Daylight Saving Time because you’re going to lose an hour’s worth of sleep!

And don’t you really find those who say you’re going to make up the hour of sleep you lost come autumn? What are they smoking? Here in my neck of the woods, it’s roughly seven and a half-months between the beginning of Daylight Saving Time and the ending of Daylight Saving Time. That’s roughly 220 days. Now, do you think 220 nights from now, you’re going to put on your PJs, crawl into bed, yawn, and say to yourself — or anyone nearby — “Gosh, I’m so glad I’m going to get back that hour of sleep that Daylight Saving Time stole from me last March. That has stuck in my craw for the last 220 days.”

I really don’t think so, and neither do you. Yet you’re going hear people moaning about losing an hour of sleep when Daylight Saving Time begins. You’re going to hear why they think Daylight Saving Time is terrible. You’re going to hear people tell you next fall, that you’re going to get back that hour of sleep you lost in the spring. Seriously?

I like Daylight Savings Time because  I can stay up way past 9:00 PM – heck I can mow the grass if I want to… I can sit outside and read a book and drink beer. When Daylight Saving Time is in effect, I can read a 350-page novel in three or four nights. I can stay awake until 11:00 PM or so, just like younger folks do. That means I can mow the lawn, read a book, drink a beer and watch a movie – all the same evening! Whats not to like about Daylight Saving Time?

OK so I have to walk in the light. Big deal! My new Cat’s Pause® walking shoes are bright red – and I don’t mind stylin’ around in the daylight wearing them. They’re pretty cool! Besides, no one younger than fifty notices me anyway – I’m invisible to any one younger. And that’s a good think, because I don’t have to comb what’s left of my hair. If it’s windy I just wear a hat, no matter how hot it is. The few long tufts of hair I have all fit nicely under the tight-fitting knit stocking hat. I have one to match my shoes.

And remember, it’s Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time. And Daylight Saving Time does not start this Sunday. It’s starts a week from Sunday. So don’t set your clocks ahead yet. Someday, people won’t have a clue what we mean when we say set your clocks ahead one hour – or set them back one hour. Clocks you have to “set” will be as outdated as the rotary dial telephone.

Anyway, if you live in the USA – but not in Arizona –  set your clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed… one week from Saturday. If you set your clocks ahead this Saturday, you’ll bed one hour early for everything, unless you live in or have a meeting in Arizona.

And don’t let me hear a peep from you about losing an hour of sleep.

8 thoughts on “Daylight Saving Time

  1. Terry Bell

    Thanks you for writing, “saving” and NOT “savings.” The ‘s’ drives me nuts. Just as it does when added to “anyway(s).”

    Reply
  2. LIBBY RORKE

    YES, AND I’M TIRED OF BEING CORRECTED BY THOSE WHO ADD THE ‘S’. AND TERRY BELL, YOU’RE CORRECT ABOUT THAT OTHER WORD WITH AN ‘S’. (I AM NOT YELLING OR USING INCORRECT ETIQUETTE ON THE COMPUTER. WELL, TO MANY I AM DISPLAYING BAD ETIQUETTE, BUT I CAN ONLY TYPE WITH ONE FINGER AND DETEST WORDS NOT HAVING A CAPITAL WHEN NEEDED. I OPTED FOR ALL CAPS INSTEAD. PLUS I CAN READ IT EASIER!!!! SOME OF US ARE OLD AS WELL.)

    Reply
    1. Jerry Steinmetz

      I don’t understand why you folks become so obsessed about the use of “Daylight Savings Time. – If I were talking about 1 day I can understand “Daylight Saving Time” as we would be talking about a single not multiple days. Daylight Savings Time would be correct usage when talking about more than one (multiple) Daylight Saving Time days. Actually no one really cares as it turns out to be a :pain in the butt” because as a farmer in the middle west we actually get up at sunrise, or before, and work until we are unable to see after dark, Daylight Saving(s) Time means not a whit to me and is something that the government thinks it has created for the betterment of peoples lives. I would prefer if we didn’t “spring ahead or fall back”. How about doing away with Daylight Saving Time and just use regular old Standard Time, Eastern Standard, Central Standard, etc., etc..

      Reply
      1. infoave Post author

        Us Americans are an obsessive lot. Do you know they make medicine for double-chins? And, there’s botox so when you get old you can get your face fixed so it looks like it’s going to explode (my apologies to William Shatner). We have eye drops if your eyes get too dry, and mouthwash if your mouth gets too dry (don’t know what’s wrong with water).

        So we are obsessed with DST. I guess – or you say we are. This essay really isn’t about Daylight Saving Time, so apparently you have not read it and just read the title and thought it was about Daylight Saving Time.

        Nope, this essay is about getting old, going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, falling asleep and dropping books on the floor and peeling arthritic fingers off of the TV remote.

        Finally, I must ask: Why are you obsessing over DST? It is what it is. We have DST because the people with money want it and do do the bar owners.

        And Conagra and Cargill are buying up all the farms. I hope you’re not either one of those.

        Reply
  3. patrick

    ‘Cat’s Pause?’ Did you mean Cat’s Paws?? or daylight savings time??

    Reply
    1. infoave Post author

      No I actually meant Cat’s Pause®, but I typed Cat’s Pause without the ® because I was too lazy to use Character Map to make the registered trademark thing. The registered trademark thing makes misspellings or apparent misspellings into brand names, for example, Miller Lite® beer.

      As for Daylight Saving or Daylight Savings, I will let you google it and get the answer.

      Reply
  4. Gwynne

    Love your editorials, but thought you might like to know that there is another state that does not observe Daylight Saving Time. Here in Hawaii we never have to worry about setting our clocks forward or back. Our time just plods on staying the same throughout the year. Maybe you would enjoying moving to Hawaii. Doesn’t get as cold as where you live either. Walks are usually blessed with nice weather.

    Reply
    1. infoave Post author

      Thanks. Alas, I am not wealthy and EB keeps me chained up in the backyard. I will have to deal with the cold and dreary Midwestern weather.

      I will add Hawaii to my shortlist of those states who have weather so nice they don’t need mess with the clocks.

      Reply

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