I’m a morning person.
The best part of my day is between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. Normally.
But until Daylight Savings Time ends, I’m a slug.
Where I live, it’s still dark until nearly 7 a.m. So I’ve been sleeping in. Along with the dog.
Luckily, Honey’s stomach clock goes off promptly at 7 a.m. and I must get up to feed her breakfast. At least if I don’t want 50 pounds of golden retriever standing on my chest and barking in my ear.
If it weren’t for Honey’s stomach clock, I’d still be curled up under the covers and not writing this brilliant blog post that you’ve been looking forward too all night.
I’ve been eagerly waiting for the end of Daylight Savings Time so I can get my morning back. I thought it was this weekend. But no, I have one more week to wait (thanks to President Bush who extended Daylight Savings Time by a month as the cornerstone of his energy policy).
But the real reason I hate Daylight Savings Time has nothing to do with extra sunlight in the morning. It has to do with humans monkeying with nature.
The earth rotates and orbits the sun. Depending on where on the planet you live and the time of year, you’re going to see different things in the sky. Your day will be longer or shorter.
I don’t like hours and hours of darkness. But I understand it. And my body figures out how to cope with itโusually by consuming large amounts of chocolate, sleeping more, and watching bad movies.
Honey understands it too.
As long as she eats at 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. with a snack sometime in the mid day, she’s happy. She’ll sleep more in the winter because it’s dark and gloomy. And she’ll play and be awake longer in the summer because it’s warm and cheery.
But when we turn the clocks back on November 3, Honey will become an evil fuzzy demon. There is no explaining to her that her stomach clock is wrong. And that she’ll have to wait another hour to eat.
If we try to stick with her stomach clock time, Honey will find herself starving in the evenings. Our bosses won’t let us leave work early because we’re keeping Honey’s Stomach Clock Time instead of standard time. So we have to help her adjust. While wearing chest protectors and ear plugs.
What can I say? Daylight Savings Time is an abomination. It was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin (cranky old pervert) and implemented so the U.S. could save money while making bombs to drop on people in two world wars. What a legacy!
Running our lives by clocks is silly. Changing the time on those clocks so we can manipulate daylight is downright insane.
It’s time to learn from the dogs.
They don’t want Daylight Savings Time. They don’t need Daylight Savings Time. And neither do we.
I hate Daylight Savings Time.
Your Turn: Is getting more daylight in the time of day you need it most worth the discombobulation that comes with changing the clocks? How do your animals cope with the time change?
Diane McCornack
I’m with you on this one 1,000,000 percent!! Not only do they monkey with the natural order of things but they take the fake time and make that most of the year!!!! Stop it I say.
SlimDoggy
I agree – luckily, I work from home so we can gradually adjust Jack & Maggie stomach time to ‘people’ time. Although for some reason, their clocks always tend to run FAST and have to be reset almost every day ๐
emma
We are 100% a morning family, most productive before noon, the earlier the better, Mom is useless in the evenings. As for the time change, it is a good reason to move to AZ since they are smart enough to never change their clocks. Changing the time is ridiculous and serves no purpose. Now that it is a week later, the kids don’t even go out until later on Halloween because it is not dark. Someone needs to stop the foolishness and just have one time for all time! I don’t know anyone other than politicians that says “yeah, let’s switch our clocks, what a great idea”.
Mike Webster
From the Husband:
When I was in grade school, I would have to get up around 7:00 AM or so in order to be ready for school on time.
When I was in sixth or seventh grade, I got up one Monday morning in spring in the usual manner, popping up when the alarm clock went off at “7:00.” But, unlike the previous Friday morning, during which slanted sunlight had flooded my room and greeted my awakening, I pulled myself up in bed this particular morning to find myself enveloped in total darkness.
So, in a rather pronounced example of wishful thinking, I just assumed that the Apocalypse had come and that there would be no school that day. And I rolled over and went back to asleep.
Ten minutes later, my mother was in the room to shake me awake, disabuse me of my hopeful assumption, and explain to me the concept of Daylight Savings Time.
Lori
Mike needs his own blog. ๐
Leslie
I’m not sure which time period is correct anymore. Are we about to go into “real” time or are we leaving it?
In any case, I live for the moment when we “Fall backward” because losing that hour in the Spring for an insomniac is just pouring salt and vinegar and 150 proof alcohol into an already gaping, seething, bleeding, open wound.
(I don’t want you to think I loathe DST but I loathe DST.)
Mike Webster
From the Husband:
Leslie, the “real” time, i.e., the time that most of the world uses most of the time, is based on the time zones established by global convention as marching out from the International Date Line. In the continental U.S. (the lower 48 states, excluding Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. territories), the “real” times are, moving from east to west, Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time and Pacific Time.
“Daylight Savings Time” is the period in much of the U.S. in which all these times get shifted one hour. I still don’t know why Ben Franklin first thought this was a good idea, but at its core, it must have involved a fundamentally perverse idea that what appeared on a clock face should somehow be more important for workers’ daily routines than what appeared in the sky.
In any case, here in autumn, we are, indeed, just about to reinvest ourselves in the rest of the world’s reality. It is in the spring that we take our strange step into Aberrational Time.
Leslie
Thanks for the info, Mike. I was pretty sure that was the case but I’m so disoriented from lack of sleep that I just wasn’t sure. ๐
Actually, the real reason I wasn’t sure is because everyone around me keeps saying they *hate* falling back in the winter so I figured I had to be the messed up one who lives for the thrill of pushing those clock hands around in the fall. They keep saying something about losing an extra hour of daylight and I can’t for the life of me figure out what they’re talking about – it’s winter, the days are shorter, it has nothing to do with what time is says on your watch.
FTR, I agree with Lori – you need your own blog. You’re an entertaining writer in your own right. ๐
Jodi
So many archaic things that need to change with this country.
DST
Animal abuse
Congress
๐
Roxy the traveling dog
The dogs and me are horrible with the time change. Someone…needs to pick a time, and stick with it.
Callie, Shadow, and Ducky's Mom
We hate DST here, too! Funny — parents of little ones complain constantly because it’s still dark when they take the little ones to the bus stop (or straight to school); but I don’t see the politicians they keep in their pockets doing anything to resolve the issue!
Anyway, I’m so with Jodi on “the archaic things that need to change with this country”!! I can understand the reasoning behind DST back in the days of WWII, I really can. BUT that was 70 years ago, before infrared light and all the other advances in making war! Back then “blackout curtains” made sense, but now they can be penetrated. Just do away with DST already! It doesn’t have any effect on energy savings at all, despite what the politicians claim…when it’s dark, we turn lights on; when it’s not, we turn them off, whether it’s DST or not. Geez I despise politicians sometimes!
jan
We hate it too and i haven’t seen a single study that shows that it saves a bit of energy. Actually what we hate is the change. We would like to stay on the same time all year long, but I guess if the government can get us to change times twice a year, they can get us to do anything.
one person's view
Y’all need to move to Saskatchewan. They don’t got this DST thing there.
I loathe getting up in the dark and then leaving work in the dark, without ever seeing daylight except through a window. I think I either have to move FARTHER north (like the Arctic Circle) in the summer, and south (like the birds) in the winter.
Merciel
I’m not a fan, but happily the dogs don’t seem to notice any difference.
Our schedule is so erratic anyway, what’s another hour or two? “Breakfast” can be anywhere from 6 am to noon, and “dinner” can be anywhere from 6 pm to midnight, so yeah, makes no difference in this house. ๐
24 Paws of Love
I agree. I don’t think time is something we should mess with when it comes to the order of the universe. It’s plain wrong. And disgusting. If they can mess with time, what else can they mess with????
GizmoGeodog
I hate DST too…For me it’s right up there with the Electoral College in the “it might have been a good idea sometime but not any more” Hall of Fame…Could we please just pick a time and stick with it? And then there’s Arizona (and Hawaii and Puerto Rico)…They don’t have it & they don’t miss it…what’s up with that? As for Gizmo, it does confuse him…His tummy clock is rock solid and the time changes do confuse him
Jessica
I find it impossible to imagine Honey as a demon of any kind, over any thing. You’re obviously fibbing.
That’s the kind of thing that daylight savings time drives an honest woman to.
Vlad & Barkly's Dee
Starting 12 days before the actual date of change, I either add or subtract (depending on spring or fall of course) 5 minutes per day. By that 12th day they’ve not noticed the actual change as much. Yes, I have to wake myself earlier for a few days, but it’s worth it in the long run to me. What’s that you always say, “Good for me, good for the dog?” I already implemented my maniacal plan again on Tuesday. Muhahahahaha
Laurie Luck
I do like more light in the a.m., but hate sacrificing it in the p.m. There’s no good answer!
themisadventuresofmisaki
I’m not a fan of daylight savings either
RumpyDog!
We don’t like Daylight Savings Time either. When the time changes next weekend, Jen won’t get an extra hour of sleep, because we’ll still want to be fed at the regular time. And we’ll want to go outside at the regular time. And have treats at the regular time. Jen has to slowly work us into the time change. *sigh*
Jessica@YouDidWhatWithYourWeiner
Same problem at our house with the belly clocks except that Chester and Gretel get me up at 5 am to eat…or 430…or sometimes 4. If I am doing my math right, I am going to gain a doggy hour when we switch the clocks back on November 3rd. Yay!
Donna
I’m not a morning person, at all, so it really messes with me in the spring time. But I dislike it for the same reasons as you, it does mess with the dogs schedules and it does mess with out sleep schedules. I don’t think it’s healthy at all for them to change the time twice a year like they do.
My thought is, they should move it back 1/2 hour instead of an hour, and then leave it alone. For good.
Kimberly Gauthier
“Fall Back” totally screws us up, because it’s dark in the morning and the evening. I have to change my commute, going in earlier, coming home on the bus instead of the wonderful train, and rush our dogs into harnesses for a walk.
So I don’t like daylight savings at all ๐
Lauranne
Glad I’m not alone! I hate that it is going to get darker in the evenings, it means I am even less inclined to get out and do anything in an evening and now I have lost BD it means a lot of wasted time in front of the tv. I am trying very hard not to revert to this stereo-type but I can already see it happening much to my annoyance!! I’d much rather we changed it so I could have lighter evenings for longer!!! End of rant!!
Christopher
I’m with you and Honey I really dislike the way DST disrupts everything. Can completely appreciate your thoughts.
Greyhounds CAN Sit
Our clocks have just gone forward and I love it. Does that mean I hate DST? I’m thoroughly confused. I’ll go back and read Mike’s explanation to Leslie again when I get back from the beach!
Pup Fan
Um… I had no idea I held such an unpopular opinion.
I absolutely LOVE DST. *ducks to dodge flying objects*
I hate the time change, however (for many reasons, including what it does to the dogs’ internal clocks and mine), and I wish we had DST all year round. I get to work early, so for me, I prefer to have those extra hours of daylight in the evening to play with the dog, to get things done, etc. I am insanely more productive during DST. I’m still getting up and going to work in the dark no matter what, it feels, so give me the sun when I can most enjoy it! I hate nothing worse than leaving the office in the evening and it already starting to get dark and then taking my daily evening walk with Tavish in full darkness.
Monica
I didn’t realize that daylight savings time was such a big deal, we don’t do it in Arizona.