At Which Bank Do I Withdraw the Daylight that I’ve Been Saving Up?

I’m not a fan of the Daylight Savings Time plan. Either way. Springing or Falling. I need days for my internal clock to reset itself, and I’m sleepy and weary for a week or so after the big day. Twice a year. But I know people who like it.

This is rather how I feel about the whole thing!

My sister prefers more light in the evenings (Daylight Savings Time). I prefer more light in the mornings (Standard Time).

I looked up the history of Daylight Savings Time, thinking that I could share some interesting facts. The article was so complicated, I had a headache before I was halfway through it. Some countries Spring Forward or Fall Back two hours or half an hour. And some countries aren’t consistent about which of their time zones Spring or Fall for which amounts of time. One time zone that moves half and hour may be right up against one who moves one hour, or maybe two hours.

This is an ancient water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.

I’m really sure that I heard, at some point, years ago, that Daylight Savings (it’s really Daylight SAVING time, but Daylight SAVINGS is acceptable) was particularly important to farmers, who needed the extra light for all the farming they needed to do in the spring and summer. And I never got that, as changing the clocks does NOT give us more time. It just changes the name of the hours. Instead of 6:00, now we call it 7:00 (after we SPRING). The farmers have the same amount of daylight. However, I read in the Wikipedia article (and it was mentioned more than once) that farmers don’t really like Daylight Savings Time. Neither do dairy farmers, as cows do not Spring Forward. They pretty much maintain their own schedules.

Three o’clock (I guess; if we’re standing at the “six” position on the sundial)

Another interesting “time” fact: The idea of standard time zones originated with the development of the railroads and Westward Expansion. “Time” used to be set by communities based on the sun (yes, we really did use the sun as our guideline). Noon was established by noting when the sun was overhead. So, you see the problem. A train might leave one station at “noon,” travel for a while, and arrive at the next station at “noon,” if it was going west. This article has the information about time zones.

I suppose sun dials should be placed on turntables now, so they could be adjusted each spring and fall. And, you’d have to factor in the difference in the sun’s position across a time zone, and determine exactly when the sun’s “noon” is in your location. Otherwise your sun dial is going to be a few minutes off all day.

It must have been easier when we just got up with the sun, and went to bed when it got dark, and ate our lunch when the sun was directly overhead. But, then how would you know when Downton Abbey came on?

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

2 Peter 3:8 (New Revised Standard Version)

Well, plus or minus an hour.