Sunday, March 11, 2018


It's 6:16 a.m., Pacific time zone, here in Oregon where I'm writing. Or is it 6:16  a.m., actually?  My clock on the book stand reads 7:16 a.m.

Let's get the time from an authority. Now it's 7:20 a.m. That's the time reported on the TASK BAR of my smart, little Hewlett Packard computer. What?!!!

Now I get it. This is the first day of Daylight Savings Time (DST), 2018. Electronic geniuses changed the on-line clocks. My genius wife changed my manual clock but not my watch.

Yep; the sky to the east of me is just a light gray. That's a pain because yesterday at 7:20 a.m. the sky to the east of me was bright blue and the sun was up and shining. Is the sun late today? That's impossible. Must be some human meddling that's behind the laggard start to the day. . .the dullness of this morning. It's DST.

I don't get it, frankly. There's only so much time to the day, and daylight today will be about as long as yesterday. So where's the saving with DST?

I never did get it, not even as a kid. I can recall TRYING TO GET IT, asking my parents questions about DST, and mostly wondering why they went through the trouble of resetting the clocks all over the house. One specific thing I recall from Dad, who always consulted World Book Encyclopedia on matters like this: the great colonial-era American inventor, Benjamin Franklin, proposed daylight savings time.

This year, for an update I consulted Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia.

I encourage you to read the Wikipedia piece on Daylight Savings time. It's worth your while. For example, a certain study showed that people in Indiana WASTED more money on additional heating and cooling costs than they saved in lighting costs under DST. Generalizing from that, we waste actual dollars and cents as well as a lot of time resetting timepieces for the joke of Daylight Savings Time.

The huge hassle that a few million people like me will go through is this: they'll look at their wrist watch and wonder, "What little button do I push to reset the time? Button A, Button B, Button C?" If they're like me, they'll dig around in the drawer to find the instructions.  They'll dig in the desk to find the magnifying glass, so necessary to reading the tiny print. They'll fumble with their Buttons and maybe, finally, get it right. If they can't manage the task the call for their spouse, who'll help reset the watch.

So, all of this waste: the financial cost of additional heating and cooling. The emotional drain of resetting the wrist watch. Darkness in the morning. For what gain?

Wikipedia reports that old Ben Franklin suggested something like daylight savings time while he was living in Paris in 1784. His rationale was that the French could save money by lighting candles later in the day.

But Franklin's intent was more of a joke than a proposal. So the Wikipedia passage states.

I have a real proposal. In the spirit of Franklin, let's end the annual hassle called Daylight Savings Time. DST is a costly joke! Turning out the light on DST a real cause that Trump could spearhead. Usefully. Trump is a genius at getting rid of good things, like gun control, reasonable interest rates, treaties. Let him get to work on something useful.

Okay, the sun is shining, at last. I must post. Write to your government representative. Like. Click the comment button to state your thoughts. Share the post on social media. Thanks for reading.

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