Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Set It And Forget It Movement for Daylight Savings Time

That topic says it all.

Did you set all your clocks yet?  Yes, spring ahead and fall back means you have to advance your clock an hour.  If you are setting an antique clock, especially old chime windup clocks, you may just want to let the thing run down and stop, then wait 11 hours.  If you're reading this in November, make that 13 hours.

There are always a few clocks that never get set.  The clock in Mom's Car for example.  My mom had a 90s vintage Lincoln Continental that even I had to get the owner's manual out to set the clock in.  After a couple years of ownership, we set mom's clock in the car to "Summer Time" or "Daylight Savings Time" and just delayed.  If we were lucky it got close to the time that it would have to Spring Ahead anyway and told her that in a couple weeks it would be fine.

Some time in May or June we'll discover The Last Clock, or the one that had been missed and try to figure out how to set the clock on that.   With all the appliances that we have like ovens and washing machines and phones that don't get set automatically it becomes an annoyance to remember whether you found them all.  I have a Motorola Razr that is unlocked and as a result it must be set manually.  Thankfully it's a "Backup Phone" now.

My dog never really quite gets reset.  She's up like clockwork on Summer Time all year.  Whether you like it or not.  It is fine for the 7 1/2 months that we're in Summer Time, but in the dark days of winter, getting up at 5AM is not pleasant. 

Time is an artificial construct that we all depend on.  But there's a better solution than setting clocks or stubbornly refusing to set your mom's intractable car clock or having to remember to set the Shortwave Radio in the living room... or just how to set the blasted thing.

Just Set It And Forget It.

Simple huh?  We are slowly but surely extending summer.  A week here, a week there.  Why not just hold a referrendum and say the majority wins.  Let odd places like Arizona excluding the Navajo reservations or the Western corners of Indiana not change, but those areas where people live and have to go through this twice a year decide what they want to do and stick to it.

Britain is now discussing "Double Summer Time" where instead of shifting from Standard to Summer Time, it's spring ahead two hours.  Talk about Jet Lag.  You get used to laying in at 6AM but 6AM is really 4AM and then the time shifts back and the dog is getting you up two hours earlier.

So how about it world? Sure there are benefits to Standard Time, just as there are benefits to Daylight Savings Time.  So lets just choose one and stop this all in its tracks! 

What's that I'm hearing?  Is it?  Oh... the sound of crickets and silence....

Oh well, then for now, I've got another bunch of clocks to set...

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