Saving Time

The clocks changed back to standard time. Spring forward; fall back. In the spring it takes a few days to stop feeling tired over one small hour of sleep gone. In the fall – well, I’ve been up since way before dawn.

When we lived in a rural society, having daylight hours may have made sense, but really, no matter what the clock says there are still only so many hours of daylight and so many hours of darkness on any given day. Does it really matter if sunrise is at 6:17 or 7:17?

In an industrial society, what’s the deal? You get home from work and there are five hours of daylight instead of four. I guess that’s nice. What it means to an old coot like me is that the kids on the street are playing in the cul-de-sac until nearly ten at night because there was still some light. The droning of the motorized vehicles goes on and on and on.

Now that the time has changed, what? What is the purpose, the reasoning, for changing all the clocks? It is much more difficult to change the clocks in the fall, perhaps that is why you get the extra hour – to change all the clocks. In the bad old days clock could be pushed forward or backward. Always with a warning that moving time backwards could damage the works. Digital clocks only go forward. So one has to move the clocks either 11 or 23 blips forward, depending on the AM/PM thing. And when you overshoot, you get to go another whole round.

Every year I have to study the owner’s manual to figure out how to change the clock in the car. No two cars have ever had the clocks change in the same way. Even if they were by the same manufacturer and relatively close in model year. Ever. That is very annoying.

I’m sure there is a good reason for this. I just wish I knew what it was.