It's time to fall back.
I don't really know why everyone gets so excited about
it. I honestly don't care if it's still
pitch black in the morning when I go to work.
Everybody gets all excited because 7 a.m. is the new 6 a.m. Woohoo!
This also means that 6 p.m. is now 5 p.m., and it gets dark
in the evenings very early. Actually, it
gets dark in the afternoon. Pretty soon,
it'll be pitch black around 4:30. Boohoo.
Decades ago in 1973, we ignored the whole change back and
observed Daylight Savings Time all year long (Thank you, disgraced-president
Nixon). It was ruled a disaster because
there were so many bus accidents. I can
still remember gathering at the circle on Wildwood Road and looking up at the
stars and moon that were still clearly visible in the dark, lightless trek to
the school bus stop. But it stayed
lighter a little later, which was nice since I was clearly awake and out of
classes to enjoy it, whereas in the morning I was comatose so sunlight wasn't
imperative.
I remember the year before, in '72, the clocks changed in
the autumn as they always had. We were
trying to get leaves up during a sudden November snow squall, and we were
further hindered by sudden darkness that descended around 4:15 p.m. The stares and sneers of the neighbors
watching us work our asses off in a snowstorm was nothing compared to the
certain physical punishment awaiting us if those damn leaves remained behind on
the ground. Ah, those golden childhood
memories of happy times and purple bruises.
There is an argument that we shouldn't have Daylight Savings
Time at all, that it is an impractical relic leftover from WWI when the
reduction of artificial lighting was tantamount. I'm more on the side that maybe we should
make DST the norm, but honestly, I don't like the whole ahead-one-back-one
thing. It's a pain in my ass to reset
all the clocks in this house, to be truthful, and the clock in the car is even
more of a kicker. Thank God my cell
phone and the cable box both reset themselves.
I could never live near either of the arctic poles. Not only does being cold suck (says the woman
who has been without a working furnace for weeks), but I would need one of
those fluorescent light hats just to get through the months of
nighttime-in-the-daytime.
On that happy note, may the sun shine down on us all after
the hellish week we've had, and may your fluorescent light hat never run out of
artificial sunshine for you. Here's
wishing you and yours a happy and safe fall back with minimal bruising.
