We do a weird thing. "We" would be referring to us humanoids. We futz with our clocks and move them around based on how it makes us feel. We want daylight later in the day, after we are done with work, so we created daylight savings time. You might be thinking now, "so what, I adjust my clock because I can - I do have these opposing thumbs after all..." Still, that does not explain why.
Why do we do that? Someone must have the answer, so I have looked into it. There are a lot of theories about why we have daylight savings time, most of which are not valid. An early belief was that it saved energy costs, with lighting and heat, but most of the research on that has been inconclusive. There have been theories that it made people healthier or a bunch of other theories, but none of those really pan out. Almost all of the theories have proven to be vaguely accurate at best, and inaccurate at worst. (If you do not believe me check Wikipedia, after all we all know that is the source of all wisdom.)
So what is the gig? I pulled this right from the Wikipedia entry on Daylight Savings Time "DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson, whose shift working job gave him leisure time to collect insects, and made him aware of the value of after-hours daylight." Mr. Hudson was from New Zealand, and he proposed this to the New Zealand government in 1898. And go back and reread that quote, he proposed this to allow himself more time to collect and study bugs.
Now I do not really care much about bugs. In fact, my favorite times of the year are those times when the bugs are dead and the weather is warm in the middle of the day. I mean, when you are sitting on the deck in the evening after a great MTB ride, with an after ride beverage, do you really have respect/fondness for the mossies that are attacking you? But, I can identify with Mr. Hudson and his desire to have daylight to pursue his passions after work. I have also never been to New Zealand, but the fact that Mr. Hudson was from New Zealand reaffirms for me that it must be a great place. Plus, that is where Frodo was from.
March 13 is Sunday, that is the day that the clocks will turn over to DST. That means that on Monday, at my home latitude, the sunset will be at approximately 18:56. For all of us that are challenged by clocks counting beyond 12, that is 6:56PM. 7PM! Just think about that. That is 3 hour more daylight than when we were at the very bottom of that pendulum swing! On December 21, the sun was setting here at about 4pm.
That will allow an after work two wheeler ride. A road bike ride, or a ride in the woods on a mountain bike or... That thought just gives me a glow today. (It's the little things). There is still snow on the ground, and it was dang cold riding to work this morning for me and the 20 odd other people here at Trek that I see also rode to work. But, in a small way, the time changing means spring is here - sort of.
(In all of this, I just thank that I do not live in Saskatoon. They do their own thing with time, that really doesn't line up with others around them and has them 67 minutes off always from Mean Solar Time. I do not even know what I would do with that whole thing.)
Now, if I just had a thicker pair of gloves to ride home with today.
Joe V.
Unfortunately, that is still the view out the window of the office. But, notice that it is melting!
Comments