Living Deliberately Hall of Fame & Miscellany 16 Mar 2007 09:29 am
Now THERE’S an idea!
In a comment below, Richard says, “My family is from Arizona, which thankfully, is one of perhaps only two states that ignores daylight savings time. When we moved to the East Coast, we took a “When in Rome…†kind of attitude and set our clocks back. What a huge mistake. For days afterward, it felt like we were walking zombies. We’ve opted out ever since. That’s right. We completely ignore DST and it’s been great.”
So my tired, little red-headed mind, doing it’s morning routine a full TWO HOURS late this morning wants to know more about this!! How’s it done? Do you just mentally adjust the start times for everything? Are you late to stuff (or would that be early in spring?) One reason I’m still so behind is because I still wake up with the sunrise, which is now an hour late to the rest of the world. I’ll no sooner get it adjusted and it won’t be long before we switch again. I really dislike the spring change, which makes 5:00 drivers heading right into bright sunshine unguarded by clouds. On Wednesday I nearly hit a kid on ATV; the car going the other way was driving into blinding sun and did not miss. She hit the kid going full force, overturned the ATV, and knocked him clear of it. He had no helmet…and somehow, miraculously, he got up out of the road and laid down on the shoulder, moving himself out of the way of the oncoming car that likely would have run over his body. I had many, many thoughts in the hours afterward and eventually it crossed my mind that time change (and sun) IS a factor in traffic accidents.
Anyway, that was a little tangent. The long and short of it is that I think Daylight Savings Time is whacked. I heard something about how it supposed to save energy but I’m really wondering how….instead of having my lights on for an extra hour or so in the evening, I have them on in the morning. Put it on a large scale for corporations and it’s pretty much the same. This website attempts to answer it. There is also a section on the protest against it:
“Protests are also put forth by people who wake at dawn, or whose schedules are otherwise tied to sunrise, such as farmers. Canadian poultry producer Marty Notenbomer notes, “The chickens do not adapt to the changed clock until several weeks have gone by, so the first week of April and the last week of October are very frustrating for us.”
Anyway, Richard, can you share a few details of this beautiful rebellion over a stupid idea like DST? 
on 16 Mar 2007 at 11:03 am 1.MaryD said …
This cracks me us Tia. When our son Jacob (now 15) was four, he had a major fit about the idea of DST. He threw a full-scale yelling tantrum, including writing to the governor and the president about this stupid idea. We thought is was funny, though irritating. Now that he is 15, and has fully developed into the very most logical and analytical one in our family, it seems that he may have been on the right track!
This IS one of the advantages of living in Africa, no DST… we just have to remember what time it is where our relatives are now…
on 16 Mar 2007 at 12:33 pm 2.Richard said …
Hi All. One of the reasons we decided to ignore DST was because Mary, my wife, used to work in a sleep lab. She’s seen, firsthand, how interupting your natural sleep cycle can impact your health. Time itself is an artificial construct designed to give us more control over our lives, but can you really manipulate something that doesn’t exist by moving the hands on a clock? Methinks not.
Suprisingly, although DST was created to save energy, we discovered that changing the clock sapped our energy, so we decided we would have no more to do with it.
So what’s it like being a DST rebel?
First, we keep our clocks and watches set at the same time throughout the year. None of that moving forward or backward business. The best part of it is that during the fall/winter when we’re one hour ahead of everybody else, it’s like having an extra hour all to ourselves. We call it “Morris Time.”
Of course, we do have to do a little mental translation whenever we set an appointment, but that’s not a problem. We feel the difference most, in the evening. When Steph, my daughter, goes to her weekly 9:00pm book discussion meeting, she’s ready to go at 9:00pm (MT), but she has to wait an ‘extra’ hour until it’s 9:00pm for everyone else. So we do tend to feel like we’re always waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.
It gets trickier when we’re dealing with other US time zones where we may be two or even three hours different.
The upside is that we’re never late for anything and we never feel worn out from lack of sleep. That extra hour in the morning means I can linger longer on my morning walk or spend more time chatting with Mary at breakfast. It makes for a more relaxing life I think.
Sleepers of the world unite! If DST is leaves you feeling out of sorts, strike a blow for independence and take back control of your personal time.
on 16 Mar 2007 at 1:06 pm 3.Sarah said …
Living in Indiana, we just experienced DST for the first time last fall. And I must say I HATE IT! Supposedly it will help out local businesses by being on the same hours as other cities they do business with….whatever….All it does is screw up my schedule and make me miss church two more times than I already would have.
on 16 Mar 2007 at 2:08 pm 4.Mimi said …
Another point that I find absolutely ridiculous about the whole DST, which the comment from Indiana alluded to is that our great legislative body came up with THIS as an energy policy?
I like the idea of ignoring DST. Sadly, I work in an office where time is of the essence.
on 16 Mar 2007 at 9:32 pm 5.CandC said …
For us here in Idaho, DST allows us as a family to ealier in the year go for family walks after dinner. Sure, I miss my going to work with the sun being over the horizon, but give it a month and the morning sun will be my drive-to-work friend again. Yet, I’d rather have the family walks than the morning drive-to-work sun anytime.