Bits for Sunday, March 9, 2008

Well…I might end up asleep in the keyboard before this is written (HA!), but if I don’t…then I’ll have successfully survived the first day of Daylight Savings Time.

I’ve immensely enjoyed the last five or so months of “real time” as I call it, and for the last week, I’ve been trying to mentally prepare myself for this day and the next seven or so months of “wrong time.”

Actually, I’ve learned to enjoy a couple of things about DST. One thing is that I get to eat an hour earlier every meal…and that’s good. I also get off work at four now (in “real time”) – and I try not to think about how that means I go in at seven. Probably my favorite thing of all, truly, is the ability to have a less rushed evening in the summer. I enjoy being able to walk outside for my exercise and do my yard work and still eat dinner in the daylight. That part is so very nice.

But the adjustment into this really doesn’t go smoothly for me. I tried to explain it to someone at work…someone who grew up in a state that always changed time. She valiantly argued (and probably rightfully so) that it’s just not a big deal and you just start going to bed an hour earlier. Well I sure can do that…but I will just lay there and stare at the ceiling for that hour and then I’ll fall asleep at the time my body is used to conking out. It gets incredibly frustrating. I’ve tried to trick myself…train myself…nothing works.

I hear, though, that it takes a person three years to get used to it, so this is my year. This is the third time Indiana has switched over, so this must be the year. I am making a goal to make it all the way to the end without giving up and allowing my internal clock to revert to “real time.”

Last night I went around the house and changed all the clocks well before my bedtime. I kept telling myself it was later than it really was. I tried to go to bed earlier than I normally would, and I tried to convince myself I was actually tired. I think that whole plan would have gone much more smoothly had I not slept in so late yesterday morning.

This afternoon, when I would have so dearly loved to curl up in the fat chair and be dead to the world for a couple of hours…I forced myself to stand up at the table and scrapbook. When I thought about squeezing in just the tiniest little catnap before church…I made myself go to the kitchen and cook mac ‘n cheese and go to the church dinner.

So I have high hopes that I’ll be exhausted here in a bit and will fall right to sleep…and with one good night under my belt, I won’t even notice the time change.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

But for the faithful few in my corner of “why mess with the time?” – I found a few pieces of ammunition. I will share them with you at this time.

I heard on the radio this week that the number of vehicle accidents increases the week after a time change (the spring time change…not the fall one where everyone is extra rested). So as you drive to and from work this week…watch out for those of us who haven’t adapted yet.

And I saw on a Yahoo news article this week that DST actually increases utility bills. You can read the whole article here if you want, but to summarize…it said that while light bills go down, heating/cooling bills go up. This happens because in the spring and fall, people are cold in the mornings when they get up for work, so they have to run extra heat. And in the summer, they are home during the heat of the day when they otherwise would be at work, so they have to crank up the air. Granted, the article said the average consumer only pays $3.19 extra per year, but if you add up all the people in Indiana alone, that comes to a grand total of over 8 million dollars per year. And 8 million or not, as a consumer, I can tell you that $3.19 is almost five Polar Teas…almost a Whopper Junior value meal, and almost a caramel frappe with whipped cream and caramel drizzle. It’s also about seventeen pictures at the Wal-Mart photo booth or three hot fudge sundaes at McDonald’s.

So next time someone shoots a list of merits of the DST to you…you’ll have a list of your own to shoot right back.

Well, the hour is getting late…or so I tell myself. So I better post this and head toward bed in hopes of tricking myself further into thinking it is time to sleep.