OK, so what did you do with that extra hour last night, huh, huh? I’m pretty sure I know what I did, and not just because I have a nasty cold, I’m pretty sure I stayed under the covers an extra hour this a.m.
One of the benefits of falling back to standard time is we get back that hour we lost in the spring when we jumped ahead to Daylight Saving Time.
But many feel that’s the only benefit and from now on it’s a much darker time of year and the beginning of the end of the world as we know it, or winter in other words.
Now this dreaded time change has been played with before when in 2007 clocks were moved forward three weeks earlier across North America in an attempt to save energy and, I assume, make our lives a little bit brighter.
In fact, according to one article I read, that’s where all this started back during the First World War when it was launched as an energy conservation measure.
And it makes sense on many levels, especially for those of us who like long summer nights.
Of course if you live in Saskatchewan, or Creston, B.C. apparently, you don’t have to ever worry about forgetting to change your clock because they don’t believe in it.
I don’t know how this affects clock radios and cell phones etc. in those jurisdictions but I’m sure there’s an app for that.
It may have something to do with farmers, and apparently brewmasters, who like more daylight in the morning hours when the rest of us are sleeping but I can see it causing problems in the Kootenays where everyone else is, well, out of step.
“Reality is, it’s basically confusing,” Creston’s mayor Ron Toyota told Kamloops This Week.
You see for eight months the city is in time with its B.C. neighbours like Nelson and Castlegar and for the other four months its clocks are in time with its eastern neighbours like Cranbrook, Lethbridge and the rest of Alberta.
Apparently, as you could imagine, it screws up people’s work schedules and doctor’s appointments if they happen to have them in neighbouring communities. Of course on the plus side it may help everyone’s math skills by utilizing addition and subtraction skills on a daily basis.
According to the article in KTW some residents would like it changed but many are quite content because it’s been that way for a long time and besides, they’re not the ones with the problem.
“It’s not that we go back and forth,” said Toyota. “We don’t change.”
True enough, and if people are wondering why they do this apparently it dates back to the building of the railroad.
So now, looking to the future, a Kamloops businessman is advocating we also never change our clocks, except he wants to keep with Daylight Saving Time year round.
Now I don’t know how Creston feels about this, actually it might make things easier for them in a weird way, the movement is gaining some momentum with an online petition.
Now, although I understand the benefits – less hassle, more sunshine hours through the dark days of winter when we want them, no more adapting to the time change, energy savings – it also seems wrong somehow.
If you steal an hour of sunshine in the spring and don’t give it back in the fall, did that hour never exist? If there’s no standard time then what’s the standard? Isn’t it impolite to borrow an hour from Mother Nature and not give it back? Where’s our manners? You know what they say about trying to fool Mother Nature? What about Saskatchewan, they’d always be behind the times, so to speak? Would it screw up future time travellers like Marty McFly and cause unforeseen consequences like yet another Back to the Future movie?
I think we should think about the possible consequences before we leap into the great unknown. As for me? I’m going back to bed and enjoy that extra hour of sleep.
