It’s funny how just a few days can change my outlook on things.
I love fall, and living in North Georgia, I’m witness to a kaleidoscope of color as the green leaves turn brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow.
It really is a beautiful time of the year.
But that only means that winter is coming soon. And with winter comes cold weather and the possibility of snow and ice – none of which I like.
The days have already started getting shorter. When daylight saving time ends Sunday, I’ll find myself, at least for several months, getting up while it’s dark outside and coming home from work while it’s dark outside.
It’s already dark outside now when I get up in the morning and take Milly, the liver and white springer spaniel who lives at my house, out for her morning walk. In fact, it’s so dark that I have to walk along behind her using the flashlight on my cell phone so I can see anything that might needed to be picked up, if you get my drift.
Now it’s going to be dark when I take her out for her afternoon walk, too. She doesn’t seem to care much. But I don’t like it.
Twice a year – when we start daylight saving time and when we end it – we have a conversation in this country about leaving our clocks alone. People like to complain about how losing an hour of sleep in the spring messes them up. In the fall, people – like me – complain about how dark it is so early at night.
I actually like daylight saving time. That extra hour of daylight at the end of the day in the summertime means we can do more leisurely things than we can do in the winter, when the days are naturally shorter.
I admit that I used to have a problem remember which way I was supposed to move the clocks. My mother taught me the saying that we should "spring forward and fall back." But we could also "fall forward and spring back." And if I go in the wrong direction, I’m now two hours early or two hours late.
I'm not sure why it's called daylight saving time in the first place since I have saved neither daylight nor time. I certainly haven't saved time. In fact, in the spring, the Time Police take an hour away from me, and in the middle of the night, no less, when I need it the most.
And I haven't saved any daylight. Yes, it stays daylight an hour longer at the end of the day. But we really haven't added any daylight to the day. It just makes the morning an hour darker. Maybe we should call it "daylight shifting time.”
A few sleep-deprived days notwithstanding, I don’t think people would really be happy if we left the clock alone.
For instance, if we didn’t start daylight saving time in the spring, summer nights would get dark around 8 o’clock instead of 9. I like that extra hour of daylight.
On the other hand, if we switched permanently to daylight saving time, it would stay dark until well after 8 in the morning each winter. I don’t like more darkness, but I’d rather that extra hour of dark be in the evening.
No matter. I’ll change my clock this Sunday and get back that hour of sleep that was taken away in the spring.
And I’ll make sure my cell phone battery is fully charged for walking the dog later that night.
