Well Done, Arizona

On Sunday we turn the clocks ahead one hour to return to Daylight Saving Time. While the fantasy of saving daylight to use it in times of darkness sounds like a good thing, it's something my inner biologic clock rebels against. I do appreciate the extra hour of daylight at the end of the day to take a longer walk, spend some time in the garden or sit and knit, but sleep feels disrupted and disjointed for several weeks or more. We were all at loose ends when the kids were little since they seemed to resist all my efforts to change their schedules. I had to laugh when I was telling my grandmother about this, and she said the boys were just like the cows. She grew up on a farm and their cows were particularly cantankerous when their milking schedules were changed. John does a lot of business globally, so he will be busy trying to figure out the correct times for calls and video conferences since the European Union doesn't change time until March 27, the states in Brazil that use DST have already made their adjustment in February, but Argentina, Chile, and China don't use DST at all.

Ryan is heading to the Arizona Winter School for his spring break (or as we call it, mathematicians gone wild). I reminded him to turn his clocks ahead on Sunday, but he pointed out several reasons why he wouldn't be doing that. His few clocks are on his computer and phone, both of which adjust automatically. The second reason is that he'll be in Arizona, where they don't observe DST. I didn't know this, but congratulate Arizona (and Hawaii) for their sound and logical choice. We're anxiously waiting to see if his computer and phone are smart enough to know they're in Arizona.

Dr. Till Roenneberg, a German chronobiology researcher said it well: "When you change clocks to daylight saving time, you don’t change anything related to sun time. This is one of those human arrogances, that we can do whatever we want as long as we are disciplined." So, no thanks to you, Ben Franklin, inventor of this crazy idea, but well done, Arizona.

 

Happy weekend and I hope you all have an easy adjustment to Daylight Saving Time!