Hello all,

Wow…Groundhog Day, and now Daylight Savings is coming up this weekend — spring is rapidly approaching. I, for one, enjoy Daylight Savings time. I like the extra light at night — except when waiting for nighttime activities such as drive-ins to start or trying to put my kids to sleep when it’s bright outside.

A little research quickly reveals that is a contentious issue for many people. Some people feel that implementing DST is an attempt to get more work out of them. People who needed to do things at the same time every day, no matter what the clock says (like farmers milking cows), dislike waking up an hour earlier (clock-time) to get their day started.

My kids go to bed at 8 and sleep until about 6. During DST they stay up until 9 and still have to get up at 6 so we can get ready for our day. They spend several months sleep-deprived!

I have a proposal, though. Since a) we spend almost two-thirds of the year in DST and b) our whole clock time is really made up at this point and has nothing to do with solar time, I propose that we make DST standard time and instead have a special “Winter Time.” It’s not going to change the way anything works, but people might feel more positive about it if they thought they were changing their clocks to make their winters easier. The end of “Winter Time” would be another day to celebrate as a sign of coming spring, not an artificial annoyance to be endured.

Thanks for reading,

Liam
liam@smalldog.com