Do you like the earlier change to daylight savings time?

[walto]

I'd rather have it dark when I wake up than walk home from the bus stop in the dark after work. You?

This was supposed to be a poll, with the three choices being

1. I'd rather have it dark at 6:00 AM and light at 7:00 PM.

2. I'd rather have it light at 6:00 AM and dark at 7:00 PM.

3. I have no preference.

[tippy]

Yes, yes, yes and I'll pick door #1. In the winter though, I do at times want it to be dark all the time and to be at home in bed sleeping. But we had a spring teaser on Saturday and it was gorgeous and made me feel very happy.

[steve(thelil)]

I much prefer it being light later in the evening.

[Gary Sisco]

What would it matter if I liked or didn't?

It's just something that exists.

[walto]

[tippy]

Gary needs more sleep.

[Gary Sisco]

Yes, I do, actually. I prefer when the clock's are set forward, for that reason, but in the end it's all a useful fiction.

[Dan G]

Living farther north than many of the rest of you, this is going to make a huge difference to me. Today, it was barely light when I woke up at 7 am, and will get dark about 6:30 this evening. So next week, it will be very dark when I have to get up - not a good thing for me! - and light into the evening until about 7:30. But it is also -15 C, and there's 3 feet of snow on the ground, so really hard to take advantage of the extended daylight. So I guess I'm saying it is of no benefit to me to make daylight savings time come earlier.

I'll see how I feel when it is going the other way in the fall.

[tippy]

Another reason for me to like it is because it will mean I am getting up at 5 sometimes instead of 4.

[Gentle Giant]

It's already much lighter out at 5pm. I'm not a morning person and I don't drink coffee so getting my ass in gear in the dark will not be easy. It will also be harder getting my 10-year-old to bed on time because it won't be dark enough.

However, having extended daylight in the early evening is a gas, allowing for walks and a sense that I didn't just blow a whole day of my life toiling in someone else's building.

I'd like to see something quantitative that shows the rationale behind this move, though, like utility savings or something. There's something sinister about fucking with time.

[Gary Sisco]

I had a factory job where the shift started in darkness in the morning and it was all but dark but the time I was on my way home. It sucked, bigtime.

Love among the ruins
I've been working nights
I hardly see my baby
I hardly see the light

-- Scott Kempner, Prince of the Bronx

[Dan G]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

I had a factory job where the shift started in darkness in the morning and it was all but dark but the time I was on my way home. It sucked, bigtime.

Yep - I live at 53 N latitude, and for about 5 weeks, mid-December to mid-January, it is dark when I enter my office, and it is dark when I leave. Luckily, we close from Dec 23 to Jan 3, and I always save a week of my vacation to use during this time, otherwise I'd go nuts not having time off in daylight.

It's amazing how much difference a few hundred miles north or south can make in the length of a day. I moved here from southern Ontario, around 44.30 N - which is really only about 600 or so miles different, but was shocked at having days 2 hours shorter for the winter. However, having daylight from about 4:30 am to 11:30 pm around mid-June to early July is like being in heaven!

[Gary Sisco]

Damn, man. Whatever possessed you to move north from southern Ontario?? :-)

[clinthopson]

Arizona seems to get along quite nicely without DST.

DST fucks up circadian rhythms.

DST was originally dreamed up by Ben Franklin to compensation for the lack of adequate lighting in his era. It was reimposed during WWI to give the factory workers some daylight after work and to allow the farm kids to get home with enough daylight to help with the harvest.

It's so appropriate now.

[Gary Sisco]

A fiction, like I said. Nothing changes, anywhere, but the position of clock hands.

[Dan G]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Damn, man. Whatever possessed you to move north from southern Ontario?? :-)

Really good $$$$$. And long summer days of 24 C temps in the mountains, versus the smog and humidity of Toronto region.

[Gary Sisco]

Ah ha. I knew there had to be some rational reason behind it. ;-) I've found myself thinking this winter, after having traveled out there to play again last summer, that maybe I should consider moving to Wyoming. Then I remind myself: no, no, no, no. Not moving from one winter place to another. Not not not.

[Vince Kargatis]

I dig DST for sure. Looking forward to darker mornings, Thor will probably sleep in more with longer darkness.

[Surfer]

Surfing after work. Hell yeah #1.

[BFrank]

Quit screwing around with the time!
We tried this in the 70's, already.

[Dennis Gonzalez]

I don't know until it happens if I'll like it. And vice versa.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Man, if I'm up at 6 am it's because it was a late night. I'm in favor of DST all year long and DoubleDST in months that don't end in R.

[tippy]

SQDC, best idea I've heard yet!

[tippy]

know what would be cool? If for those of us 9 to 5'ers during M-F 9 to 5 we could be sleeping like in one of those Matrix pod thingies doing our work (oh yeah - whats the diff, right?) and then the rest of the time our alive conscious time it be not M-F 9 to 5 - essentially eliminating 9 to 5 and it could always be summer when school was out 7:00 pm and the sun is still pretty high in the sky. I LOVE DST!!!

[Jazzzoline]

Does DST really save light?
Does DST actually save anything at all?

[tippy]

yeah it saves you light for the end of the day. It's for when people used to burn candles and have to go to bed when it was dark because no sun and no tv.

[Dan G]

Another reason behind the idea of DST was that by changing the clock, it meant that kids had more daylight after school to do their chores on the farm.

[kedoane]

I'm not too thrilled about the earlier date for the time change, even though I won't be at work when it happens (I am currently on vacation until next Monday.) The folks who are filling in for me this upcoming weekend (along with the engineer) will be dealing with old windows based automation system that is programmed to switch on the last Sunday of this month. Knowing my employer, they will probably want me to work late on the 24th to make sure that the clocks do not go forward again.

Isn't TV land fun?

[Mike Schwartz]

They were thinking about doing this a number of years ago to 'save energy,' but critics complained that the early darkness makes it unsafe for kids navigating in the dark going to school.

Unsettling for drivers too, knowing the munchkins are scurrying around while it's still dark.

Why not the same concern today?

[Captain Hate]

What pisses me off about this *brilliant* move is they aren't changing it back until after Halloween so it'll still be light out at the start of it. Eff that!!! I think the whole goddam thing is stupid, arbitrary and designed by morons. Pick one time, stick with it and leave me the fuck alone.