“Time and tide waits for no man.” – St. Marher in 1225
Boy, wouldn’t he be surpriesed to pop into the United States today and see that indeed, we can make time wait on us.
On November 6, 2011, we turned our clocks back one hour and joined the rest of the world in the globally accepted measurement of time.
Here we are, barely four months later, resuming the practice of trying to save daylight. This seems so odd to me. I think it should be called – Daylight Postponement – as it truly can’t be saved only postponed. The benefit of an extra hour of daylight in the evening, comes at the expense of the extra sunlight in the morning.
For some, this will be a good thing. There will be more light at the end of the work day for yard work, gardening, playing golf, etc. Just don’t blame the poor old farmers. They work by the sun and not the clock, so it doesn’t matter what time the clock says the sun is coming up or going down.
For others, it will place children at risk as they board buses in the dark, and younger ones whose internal clocks don’t recognize the change, will be hungry at odd hours and have their sleep patterns disrupted. Even our pets will have to adjust to the change in their feeding and walking schedules.
With twice as many months now devoted to Daylight Saving as opposed to the ‘real’ time, I wonder why we ‘fall back’ at all. Which leads me to ponder why we can’t agree on a time frame and stick to it all year. I don’t care which one – let’s just pick one and be done with it.
In my November post, I included a little background on the history of Daylight Saving if you’d like to read more about it.
I actually contemplated changing my clocks Friday afternoon, but then I usually use my phone and computer when I am at home to give me the time, so I couldn’t fool myself into thinking it was an hour later as it kept reminding me that it wasn’t. And I made an extra effort to get up earlier than I normally would on a Sunday morning, just to try to assure that I will be sleepy earlier tonight. I doubt that this works as it rarely does.
What do you do to prepare for this time change and which time do you prefer?
Writingfeemail's Blog 
Hi,
It does seem a bit ridiculous if most of your time is daylight saving time, it would make a lot more sense to just keep the clocks the way they are all year, instead of having to turn them back for a few short months.
We also have daylight saving in some parts of OZ, not where I live, but the Southern parts.
It’s crazy isn’t it? And at my age, sleep disturbances aren’t welcome at all.
haha…as family and friends gathered yesterday at my brother’s house around the pool table I glanced at the clock on the wall, a large similar style to the one pictured. It was 9:10 PM CST and my brother’s clock said 10:10. We all laughed acknowledging that my brother nor his wife, both extremely busy high school administrators, had not set the clock forward. Months later, their life is back in order and “on time.”, daylight savings time, that is.
I hope you are just sleepy enough tonight to get a good night’s rest, Renée.
From your lips, Georgette, to God’s ears.
Before computers reset themselves, I never changed mine, but I did everything else. I have to do all of the automobiles as no one besides me seems to remember how.
I HATE it! Where I grew up, we didn’t change – we were between 2 time zones I guess. So I have never quite adapted to it and I feel the effects for days …….. ugh.
Love the post & photo 🙂
MJ
MJ, I’m so glad you agree. It almost seems ridiculous in modern age America.
I wish I had your forethought. I just go to bed normally ect. I don’t change a thing but the clocks. Then I suffer the next day. Oh well. It used to matter a whole lot when I was in school and I worked. Now… Not so much haha. Have a great day today!
I guess if I weren’t working it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But that’s not an option. You little bugger – I’ll think about ya when I’m up way too early for my body clock tomorrow.
I usually prepare by forgetting about it and then wondering why everything is screwed up. But an extra hour of daylight is my preference.
Let’s keep it this way and never, ever, change it again. By the way, your method is usually mine as well.
I used that quote on my son to get him going for school. He HATED it and it still gives me a mischievous grin~
I bet he remembers it too. What a nice way to instill time observation – use of quotes.
Well, the change of time made me “oversleep” and I missed an appointment. I’m all for abolishing this practice. Never liked it. Could never see a use for it.
It is a bear to get used to. So sorry you missed an appointment but I bet they understood.
Now, I kind of like this time change. Within a month, it’s light when you wake up and it’s light until 8 in the evening. I love Spring! The other time change makes me feel depressed. It just seems to suck all the light right out of everything. Of course, what I’m really saying is I prefer the light months to the dark months and the warmer to the colder. Because I’m not working, it’s not that big a deal to me. My husband on the other hand will suffer for the first couple of weeks.
It will take me a couple of weeks to get used to it and then I’ll like it. We should just keep it all of the time and not go back, or vice versa. The days naturally get longer as the seasons change but I suppose we just feel the need to force it.
Really wish they’d just leave the time alone already. Seriously, pick a time and leave it be is what I’d vote for.
🙂
~d.
Right on Dianna! I’d vote for that.
Yes that quote sounds familiar – & it’s well placed. Great blog! I actually had no idea you’d only just taken to daylight savings. Here in Australia, the west (Perth) does not agree with daylight savings & will not engage in it, but the right of Australia (Melbourne, where my son & me moved to FROM PERTH 3 years ago) – they do. It’s funny, but people do have pretty strong attitudes on it. I don’t have a strong attitude & can go either way. You adjust within a couple of days (or I do) to the altered hour. But absolutely yes, it is funny that “time & tide waits for no man), yet here we go mucking around with it!
That’s interesting. We have a couple of states that won’t participate but mostly everyone in the States does. We keep moving the dates of the change around. It used to be closer to six months each and now it is four months of normal time and eight of Daylight Saving. So we can’t even set a ‘time’ to change the ‘time’. Yikes.
I think I remember hearing that at some point, they’re going to leave the Daylight “Savings” Time in place year round. But I may be wrong.
I like that it’s light longer in the evening, but I don’t like waiting so long in the morning for my sunrises!
And staying up later for the sunsets! But your photos are worth the effort. I hope you’re right about keeping Daylight Saving all year.
I don’t think I can prepare because daylight savings always sneaks up on me and I just adjust, albeit tiredly 😉
I understand fully. It’s hard to keep up with the time change when they keep changing the date to change the time.
Being a night owl, I prefer the extra light in the evening (and dark morning). However, I would like to have my hour of sleep back. It is a funny feeling, thought, as our bodies know what time it is, no matter what the clock says.
And as I age, getting my body to understand the change is more and more difficult.
I try to get up 10 to 15 minutes earlier a few days ahead of the big change. That seems to help my adjustment process.
That is smart Bella. I wish I’d thought of it.
I love spring forward, and getting the extra hour of light at the end of the day. Maybe we can’t save, and can only postpone the inevitable, but we do save at least one whole hour from the dark side. 😉
It sounds like you are not an early morning person – where the dark hour is thrust back upon us. It has to go somewhere. Yikes!
Renee, After seeing the photograph,I thought it was the same post I read in your blog few months earlier. But it’s different. Actually, this daylight concept is something I know, but never experienced. As you know in our part of world, this concept is not applied. That’s why we get lots of time to sleep in winter. 🙂
One more nice and intelligent post from you Renee.
Arindam, I’m impressed that you remembered the picture. I used it again on purpose because of the changing time around – yet again! Yikes! You guys are wise to observe one time all year long. Maybe we can learn from you. BTW – I’m glad you’re back.
It’s been one day but I’m still feeling out of sorts. Just very tired. I think for me the biggest disruption is sleep patterns…both mine and the kids.
I’m out of sorts too, Darla. And we’re not alone. Our local news channel presented a segment on the effects of the time change, especially on children, just this morning. Hope you’re all back to feeling normal soon.
I agree, you hit the high and low points of the time change for me and a lot of folks. I enjoyed your post very much. Well said. 🙂
Thank you.
I don’t like this time change. This is a first for me, that I would be bothered by it. My sleep pattern’s off and has been for awhile….I’m going to make me a sandwich.
As we age, women struggle with their sleep patterns and rhythms. We just don’t need to have those efforts interrupted by time turners. I’m feeling your pain.
I hate waking up to darkness. It feels depressing and weird. And we used to change the time in April and October. What happened to that system, and who’s making these decisions? I’m with you, Renee: We should leave the clocks alone. We’re confused enough.
And if it confuses us, can you imagine how much it confuses people in foreign countries as they try to conduct business with us or contact their families and friends? You’ve brought up a very important question though – who is making these decisions?
I think I prefer my extra daylight hours in the evening 🙂
I LOVE daylight savings and always look forward to “springing forward”. Here is France during the summer it stays light until 10pm and I just adore that. During standard time in the winter the sun doesn’t even rise until 8:15am! Can you believe it. Here in Provence during the daylight savings months the sun rises around 6am and sets at 10pm so we really get to take advantage of the sunshine.
Ashley
Save me a room. I’m on my way!
What’s an hour to me? Nothing. I adjust without so much as even noticing. Which, usually, makes me early/late for appointments on the second day of the time change (here, they change Saturday to Sunday night). Naturally, none of my clocks will be manually adjusted. Neither do I wear a watch. So, yes. No problem. Says the woman who usually takes three months to register it’s a new year, and who, last year, thought it was April when it was May (the repercussion of that not so funny).
When it comes to babies, children, animals – as you say – different story. You can’t rewind them easily. So, yes, on the whole: Irritating.
U
That ‘not noticing’ part will get ya every time. I must not have noticed the correct birthday one year and thought I was a year older than I actually was, so I got to be that age twice. (I was pregnant – insanity is allowed.) When my sister corrected me the next year, I credited her with giving me a ‘whole year’ for my birthday. Not a bad gift if you can get it.