Daylight Saving Time Starts Sunday, March 11th!

Once again it’s time for that most hated of all Spring-time activities, the Springing Forward of the Clock, otherwise known as Daylight Saving Time. This year, the dreaded date and time is 2 AM on Sunday, March 11th. For the next 8 months we get to look forward to the wondrous day in November (the 4th, to be exact) when we can recoup that lost hour of time and stay in bed just a little bit longer and laugh at the alarm clock. I’m already looking forward to it.

If you’re one of us the many people who don’t exactly like the lost hour, you have a couple of choices:

1. Move to either Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands, or American Samoa…these places have chosen not to participate in Daylight Saving Time, or

2. Move to Kyrgyzstan, a land-locked, mountainous, central Asian country about the size of South Dakota. Somebody set their clocks ahead one hour in 2005 and I guess they forgot to set them back the following November and no one noticed, so they now observe Daylight Saving Time all the darn time.

OK, so there IS a third option. Set your durned clock ahead on the 11th, get an hour less sleep and wake up all grumbly and curmudgeonly, take a shower, get dressed and DEAL WITH IT!

What a life.

Is it November yet?

How other places deal with Daylight Saving Time

Post from: Wallingford Wired©2009 by Pat & Wayne Harriman

Daylight Saving Time Starts Sunday, March 11th!

Set Your Clocks Back on November 6th, 2011!

Well, Halloween is over and we’re all suffering the ill effects of sugar-induced comas after eating all that leftover Halloween candy, right? C’mon, you can admit it…the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one…

OK, anyway, with the Witching Hour safely behind us, we now have to look forward to the next event that let’s us know that the year is rapidly coming to a close. About time, too. What event would I be talking about?

Thanksgiving? Nope, although we’re looking forward to the turkey and stuffing, the cranberry sauce, the gravy, pies, football games, and the tryptophan-induced coma that follows (OK, so turkey doesn’t REALLY make you sleepy, but don’t burst my bubble)…

Post from: Wallingford Wired©2009 by Pat & Wayne Harriman

Set Your Clocks Back on November 6th, 2011!

Daylight Saving Time Starts Sunday, March 13th!

Once again it’s time for that most hated of all Spring-time activities, the Springing Forward of the Clock, otherwise known as Daylight Saving Time. This year, the dreaded date and time is 2 AM on Sunday, March 13th. For the next 8 months we get to look forward to the wondrous day in November (the 6th, to be exact) when we can recoup that lost hour of time and stay in bed just a little bit longer and laugh at the alarm clock. I’m already looking forward to it.

If you’re one of us the many people who don’t exactly like the lost hour, you have a couple of choices:

1. Move to either Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands, or American Samoa…these places have chosen not to participate in Daylight Saving Time, or

2. Move to Kyrgyzstan, a land-locked, mountainous, central Asian country about the size of South Dakota. Somebody set their clocks ahead one hour in 2005 and I guess they forgot to set them back the following November and no one noticed, so they now observe Daylight Saving Time all the darn time.

OK, so there IS a third option. Set your durned clock ahead on the 13th, get an hour less sleep and wake up all grumbly and curmudgeonly, take a shower, get dressed and DEAL WITH IT!

What a life.

Is it November yet?

Post from: Wallingford Wired©2009 by Pat & Wayne Harriman

Daylight Saving Time Starts Sunday, March 13th!

Daylight Saving Time Ends November 7th!

Well, Halloween is over and we’re all suffering the ill effects of sugar-induced comas after eating all that leftover Halloween candy, right? C’mon, you can admit it…the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one…

OK, anyway, with the Witching Hour safely behind us, we now have to look forward to the next event that let’s us know that the year is rapidly coming to a close. About time, too. What event would I be talking about?

Thanksgiving? Nope, although we’re looking forward to the turkey and stuffing, the cranberry sauce, the gravy, pies, football games, and the tryptophan-induced coma that follows (OK, so turkey doesn’t REALLY make you sleepy, but don’t burst my bubble)…

Winter? Hmmph…let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?…

No, we mean the End of Daylight Saving Time!

Yes, we’ve saved all the daylight we can for this year, so this Sunday morning, November 7th, at 2 AM it’s time once again to set those clocks back an hour, pull the covers up over your head and sleep in an extra hour! And it’s a Sunday, too? How can we be so lucky?

To see how this crazy tradition got started, check back to last year’s Spring Forward post. Otherwise, sleep well, O My Friends, and I’ll see you bright and early Sunday morning…but not too early – I’m sleepin’ in!

Post from: Wallingford Wired©2009 by Pat & Wayne Harriman

Daylight Saving Time Ends November 7th!

The sun is setting earlier and earlier every night; a chill has crept into the morning and evening air; the crystalline, white jacket of frost has coated cars, grass and roads, and even snow has graced us with its presence already. These things can be the signal of just one thing:

Halloween? Nope, but that’s close…

Thanksgiving? Nope, although we’re looking forward to the turkey and stuffing, the cranberry sauce, the gravy, pies, football games, and the tryptophan-induced coma that follows (OK, so turkey doesn’t REALLY make you sleepy, but don’t bust my bubble)…

Winter? Hmmph…let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?…

No, we mean the End of Daylight Saving Time!

Yes, we’ve saved all the daylight we can for this year, so this Sunday morning at 2 AM it’s time once again to set those clocks back an hour, pull the covers up over your head and sleep in an extra hour!And it’s a Sunday, too? How can we be so lucky?

To see how this crazy tradition got started, check back to my Spring Forward post. Otherwise, sleep well, O My Friends, and I’ll see you bright and early Sunday morning…but not too early – I’m sleepin’ in!

Post from: Wallingford Wired©2009 by Pat & Wayne Harriman

Daylight Saving Time Ends Sunday, November 1st!

Don’t forget to turn those clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed Saturday night! Daylight Saving Time is ready to bless us with its presence again on Sunday morning at 2 AM sharp. Did I say bless us? It’s taking away a hour of our sleep, that can’t be a blessing, more like a curse!

But anyway, we lose an hour of sleep until November 1st, at which time we can blissfully sleep in an extra hour…or two.

Did you ever wonder where DST came from? Who was the crackpot that thought we’d all get by better with an hour less sleep on a cold day in March? What was its original intent?

No? Well, too bad, here’s a little timeline of the major moments in DST history:

1784: Ben Franklin writes a paper extolling the virtues of extending daylight in order to save candles. [Candles??]

1883: The U.S. and Canada listen to the cries of their railroad executives and adopt Standard Time. [As opposed to Irregular Time...]

1918: The U.S. establishes a daylight-saving time to run for seven months to conserve electricity during World War I. Once the war was over, the national law is dropped and daylight-saving time became a local option. [So we needed a war to save a few light bulbs?]

1942: During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt orders a year-round daylight-saving time, called “War Time,” which runs for three years. [Gee, we must still be on War Time!]

1944: For the next two decades, there is no national law. States and jurisdictions can choose whether to observe daylight-saving time and when to begin and end it. [And that's when everyone started being late for work...]

1966: Congress passes the Uniform Time Act of 1966, establishing a beginning and end date for daylight-saving time, but leaves it up to local jurisdictions to decide whether to use it. [We don't care if ya use it, but if ya do, ya gotta start it and stop it like WE say!]

1973: Congress enacts the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act in response to the Arab oil embargo. Daylight-saving time is extended to eight months rather than the normal six. The Department of Transportation says the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil each day was saved. [Sounds like a plan...when do we start?]

1986: Daylight saving is moved from the last Sunday of April to the first Sunday of April. The end date is left the same. [April Fools! You were late for work again, weren't you?]

1987: Chile delays its time change by one day to accommodate a papal visit. [The Pope stops time!]

2005: Congress passes the Energy Act of 2005 which starts daylight-saving time one month earlier in the spring and extends it one week later in the fall, beginning in 2007. [Geez, took 'em 32 years to try to save some more energy? And gas is STILL 2 bucks a gallon...]

Well, there you have it. The, um, highlights of the history of Daylight Saving Time. Oh, and before we go, here are two more little tidbits for you:

• Two states—Arizona and Hawaii—and three U.S. territories—American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—don’t observe daylight saving time. Indiana adopted DST in 2006. And,
• It’s officially “Daylight Saving Time”, not “Daylight Savings Time”. But in the end, who cares…we still lost an hour of sleep!

Post from: Wallingford Wired©2009 by Pat & Wayne Harriman

Daylight Saving Time Starts Sunday, March 9th!