(credit)
So, dearest Daylight Savings, although I lose an hour in the spring, I happily welcome you and the chance for you to bring extra daylight into my life for the eight-ish months when you’re around. I realize that you were created for farming purposes and I was intrigued enough about you to ask if you exist in Portugal (where you do, though who knows what it’s called there, because “Daylight Savings” as a foreign term when mentioned). I realize that all good things must come to an end, but seriously? Let me just tell you the reasons why I think it’s pretty shitty that you have to end, especially in New England where I reside.
First off, I feel like you do not need to end. I think that it would be much better if we all turned our clocks ahead next March and just let our clocks STAY that way. Then come November when we gain the (much appreciated) extra hour.
Because I have to be a “mature, responsible adult” I work roughly a 9-5 schedule weekly. (Trust me, I’m working on figuring out how to do without that because who needs that, really?) This means that I do not see daylight when I get out of work. The sun has already set. I can’t take my dog for a walk. I have no real sense of time when it’s ALWAYS dark. My poor dog is more depressed than ever, laying around moping because he can’t get out enough to go out and play and pee on every blade of grass while we walk down the street. There’s no way I would walk in the cold and dark night when I live surrounded by woods and possibly weirdos.
Ever heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder? Seasonal depression? It’s caused my lack of sunlight. So it’s bad enough in the winter when the sun isn’t even sure how to shine the right way, but go already and throw in your ending and there’s just that much less sunlight while any person is not being a slave to the mundane 9-5.
It’s also really depressing to wake up while it’s still dark out. I guess the worst part is when you wake up in the winter and it’s freezing already, you look out the window and feel so hopeless because even the sun is too depressed to shine.
Please regard my opinions in your thoughts next year about existing. Thank you very much.
<3.Melanie.Kristy
Note: This blog post was featured in WordPress.com’s “Freshly Pressed” on November 15, 2010. Thanks everyone for stopping by!
Totally agreed. I’m amazed at the difference I feel when waking up to the bright and cheery sun — as opposed total darkness!
When I wake up and it’s dark outside, I’m convinced it’s definitely time to still be sleeping!
Couldn’t have said it better myself. I’d like to add that I longingly look out the window at the sun every day whilst trapped in the office, and by the time I do get outside the sun has retired.
This happens to me, too.
I live in the midwest United States and we don’t get much sun the winter anyway – daylight savings really shortens what we would get substantially. I hear you sister. If they put this to a vote I wonder how many people would be for/against?
Congrats on being pressed!
Cheers.
http://yourlifesentence.wordpress.com/
Thanks! I’d be interested in seeing the results of a vote!
I vote we worker bees hold out for sunshine both before and after the work day. An hour or so of each will do. To that end, I think a post in favor of shorter work days should be on the horizon. In the mean time, I hope Daylight Savings Time hears your plea.
Totally agree. We aren’t agrarian in the majority anymore. Let’s
wake up to sunshine!
http://www.cherryvalleyretreat.com
Seriously. This was a great post!
Thanks a lot!
I’m with you — but I might actually go so far as to shorten the average work day by at least an hour in the wintertime so that we can get up when the sun does and have at least one hour after work while the sun is still shining.
Crystal
http://www.crystalspins.com
Hey, I’d never disagree to shortening the average work day
i hate daylight savings time. it’s a scourge. leave time alone. there are more of us than you’d think. trouble is no one cares.
I live in Sri Lanka, so I always wake up to sunshine which is pretty cool! Anyway great piece of work!
Thank you! Is it dark in Sri Lanka before you leave work, or around when you get home?
I agree! I know that when we “fall back” we return to “real time,” but I don’t have to like it!
Exactly!
No Daylight Saving Time in most of Arizona*. It’s already 100 degrees in the summertime at 10pm, why prolong that an hour more?
*For you Arizona trivia buffs, the Navajo Nation DOES go on Daylight Saving Time, to keep consistent with their lands within New Mexico.
As much as I appreciate that extra hour a few eeks back, I find myself wanting to sleep more. Thank God the Christmas tree goes up soon and we can be entranced by twinkling lights in the evening.
I agree. Twinkling lights in the evening around Christmas time are the best!
Here in Arizona, we don’t do daylight savings. So, in summer, we’re on PST, and right now we’re on MST. The only bad thing is that the TV schedules change by one hour. E.g. During summer a show will be at 9PM, but in the winter it will change to 10PM. Slightly annoying, but I can live with it.
daylight savings is a waste. i feel much more tired because the sun is gone faster and it feels like my day is cut! i cannot wait til the next daylight savings so i could get my time back.
http://enjoibeing.wordpress.com/
I hear ya!
ah lets be honest though! if the themometer was half an inch longer we’d all be freezing to death! enjoy the seasons is what I say, rather than having them apply to our weaknesses we should gain the strength to love the nature we just can not change.
http://www.loyaltothemagisterium.wordpress.com
I hear you sister! I’m in the UK- same problem with dogs and darkness and (possible) lurking weirdos…lol… The only good thing about daylight savings is, when it ends… it feels like one has a whole new lease on life!
Haha I agree it does feel like one has a whole new lease on life when Daylight Savings ends!
But what about the great feeling you get when you leave for work in the morning and the sun is ALREADY shining? My morning commute has already been made a happier once because of the sun streaming through the trees and onto the fresh lingering fog and dew. The leaves on the trees (the ones which remain) are vibrant and warm, a remnant of their golden hues that shone just a few weeks ago. I’ll miss the evening sun, too, but it makes it all the more exciting when it returns in the spring!
I never really have left for work before the sun is shining, so I guess I can’t totally relate to that great feeling that it is out early in the morning. I just know that it’s totally depressing when it’s completely set before I leave work at night.
Congrats on making it to freshly pressed!
Thank you so much!
It’s a nice idea to address Daylight Saving Time directly. Did it reply to you? To be prepared next time, have a look at our post about time-hopping: http://transatlanticdiablog.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/standard-time-daylight-saving-time-sommerzeit-winterzeit-what/
Time hopping? Interesting!
I hear you. I hate it when it becomes dark at 4 pm. So gloomy.
It really is!
Ha I enjoyed this article. DST really messed me up though. Half the time I don’t know what time it is and I end up missing my much planned tv shows.
Thank you!
Nice article. Nature still tricks us in spite of all the advancement and progress we have made. Ironical!!!
Pingback: Things I Love Thursday | So Baby Why Don't We Just Dance?