Perpetual Ruminations

I Don't Get It

We've changed the clocks again. It's a real pain in the ass for most people, and it doesn't do anything positive, yet every spring we move it ahead an hour and every fall we move it back. Living as far north as I do, I'd prefer to leave them on regular time, but I understand a lot of people prefer to leave them on Daylight Saving Time.

I've said for years that we should jump ahead thirty minutes and then just leave them alone. That's a compromise I think  everyone  most people would be alright with. But I'd be fine with leaving them on regular time or leaving them on Daylight Saving Time, just leave them.

What I don't understand is how anyone can think the time change gives an extra hour of daylight. I've read it a few places here and, like Charlie Brown listening to Lucy, it gives me a stomachache. We currently have eleven and a half hours of daylight; changing the clock did not increase it to twelve and a half. It only changed the time it gets light and the time it gets dark.

It's simple, yet some people just don't get it; there is no extra hour of daylight. The very name, Daylight Saving Time, is a lie! Nobody saves any time in the spring, and nobody loses any time in the fall; approximately twenty-four hours year-round, that's what we get. I suppose part of the reason I dislike Daylight Saving Time is that it's yet another lie governments tell the people, and it's yet another example of people's lives being disrupted for no practical reason.