Daylight Savings Time

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

26 Oct 2008 07:51 AM

If you are wondering whether you should reset your clocks today, you can relax. Daylight savings is on November 2nd this year. That means that you will just have to wait one more week until you can sleep in and enjoy the extra hour.

We have been having discussions with the neighbors about Daylight Savings Time and how it will affect our lives. It is already getting pretty dark here around 6 p.m. No doubt our heavily wooded lots contribute to that a bit. Away from open sky and the city lights, things tend to go dark a little earlier.

It seems that clocks are still getting used to the change in daylight savings. Many of the older ones and even the so-called "atomic" clocks are getting confused. They are trying to reset themselves this week. That means a week of manually telling the clocks what time it is before they finally catch up.

Go around your house. You might find some stragglers. It will be interesting to see if things fall into place. Last year there was a bit of havoc, as our VCR and car clock didn't agree with each other. Neither did the laptop computer and the older desktop computer. I'm not sure I completely understand, since I thought they were all going out to a networked source for the time. Ah, but my degree is in English Literature, not rocket science.

Oh and a little bit of trivia: the correct name is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings (with an S) time, although we all find the addition of that plural more instinctive to say.

Not everyone in the United States will be affected by Daylight Savings Time. Arizona, Hawaii and Puerto Rico don't observe it, probably because it is already so sunny and light all of the time. The Amish here in Pennsylvania don't observe it either. They still keep on schedule with their neighbors by making the difference between "Regular Time" and "English Time."

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog and caring for little ones in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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Heidi (5269) 26 Oct 2008 12:25 PM

The heat/sun is the exact reason there is no Daylight Saving Time here in AZ. Back in the 60's they did it for one year and never did it again. With daytime heat in excess of 110 we want the sun down earlier in the summer, rather than later! Of course, we have alarm clocks that set themselves (no "Arizona" setting) so this morning we were up an hour earlier than normal!

Mary Ann Romans (26886) 27 Oct 2008 11:57 AM

Thanks for sharing the story from the perspective of a AZ native. I guess you have to fool your clocks into waking you an hour past when they think it is.