Archive for November 7th, 2010
Spring Forward, Fall Back
It is that time of year when we adjust our clocks. Spring Forward, Fall Back is a great way for me to orient myself regarding where the precious extra hour is supposed to go.
Daylight Saving Time was designed to give folks extra evening summer hours so they could have some fun after work, beneficial to retailers, but not so for farmers. The idea of saving time got support in the early days of electric consumption. People would have extra hours of sunlight and not have to turn on indoor lighting and in doing so stress early delivery systems.
However, even though DST was touted and talked about for a few years, it was not until Germany enacted a plan in 1916 to save on coal consumption. DST was adopted by the United States two years later in 1918.
My computer clock adjusted itself several days ago, but the ritual of changing the clocks is pretty much done by hand, one-at-a-time.
I get the concept, I experience it’s effect. But twice a year I marvel and giggle that we mortals actually think we can literally save time. I know that in the process many of us lose sleep, and during the adjustment period we are either running early or running late. And, to add to the confusion there is EST, MST and PST.
I am an early-bird, I like light in the morning. However with ageing I am suffering ‘night-blindness’ when I drive, so I also like the later evenings. Hmmmmm, life is indeed about compromise.