Sunday, March 08, 2009

I want my hour back!

This weekend, we turned the clocks forward to daylight savings time, and while we won't have to deal with the sun setting until nearly 7 p.m., the downside is that I suddenly feel so behind.
Daylight savings time (DST) used to happen on the first Sunday in April, and all through university, this hour-thievery had such an enormous effect because it was always, always, always right around exam time. I felt like the time people were out to make sure I couldn't have just 60 more minutes to figure out a proof, to solve a program that refused to compile, or even to just sleep so that the next day's studying would make some sort of sense...
Two years ago, the U.S. decided to move DST three weeks earlier, and being the good Canadian neighbours we are, we of course followed right along. It was necessary, 6 weeks of time difference (three in the fall when setting clocks back, three in the spring when setting clocks forward) between places like New York and Toronto would have wreaked havoc on the business world, but you wonder why Uncle Sam really thought it was such a good idea to do it anyway...
The theory was that it would save energy, that 3 weeks of extended day light would mean people would turn their lights on later, blah blah blah, yadda yadda, insert more detail...
There is NO way to ever measure whether this worked. What I do know is that at work, we were thrown into a frenzy working on the DST project, making sure all IT infrastructure, systems, and applications were DST ready... It was many hours of overtime for many people. Some did so much OT they bought flat screen TVs with the money after. Others took vacations. (Me, I just did the boring thing and put it in the bank). It was like a mini version of the Y2K freak-out 7 years earlier... We love to have to worry about whether something wrong with the machines can possibly cause the whole world to end.
In hindsight, I look back fondly at the DST project as the first really technical, large scale project I worked on. But I still got up this morning and realized that instead of the 9:50 blinking on my clock, the time was 10:50. And I still feel groggy while I write this. And I still feel, well, honestly? A little jipped.

5 comments:

- K said...

Agreed. I'm feel behind on everything right now. Give us back our hour!

- K said...

Gah, I meant *I feel* or possibly, *I'm feeling*. I blame the DST for my error.

Anonymous said...

Not me - I'd happily sacrifice that hour if they'd just leave it as the normal time - DST every day for me. I love the lighter evenings.

VioletSky said...

...and don't we just put all that energy savings into the darker morning hours?

...and the US forgets that the daylight hours don't just run longitudinally, but also latitudinally, so that people in the north already have a longer daytime to begin with.

I always feel so discombobulated for days after the change.

noha said...

K, I totally cracked up at that...
It's hard to tell for me if my semi-grouchy state all week since can STILL be blamed on this, or if I'm just stressed in general and looking for something to blame.
COTW, I love the lighter evenings too. It's the darker mornings that mess me up!
VS, I think they figure most people are sleeping during the darker morning hours at that point... Don't know if I agree. I leave the house between 6:30 and 7 for work, and for those three weeks, it means using more energy againt when I get up to get ready...