Last week I wrote about marching forth, and today I’m writing about springing forward. Daylight Saving Time began last Sunday, so we all turned our clocks ahead an hour.
This annual change in the time inspired the usual round of complaints about lost sleep and groggy mornings. And in the autumn, we’ll complain again about the loss of evening light, even though we get that hour of sleep back.
Every year the same debate returns—should we keep changing the clocks or settle permanently on one time system? And if we choose one, should it be Standard time or Daylight time? Whenever the topic comes up, people align with the pro-Standard and pro-Daylight settings. And someone pipes up, “I don’t care which time we keep, just leave the clocks alone.”
My vote is firmly for Daylight Saving Time. That extra hour of evening light feels like a gift, a signal that spring—and then summer!—cannot be far away.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, winter days are short. Very short. The sun sets before 5:00pm Pacific Standard Time in December. The sun disappears before the afternoon is over, and sometimes it feels as though darkness has settled in for a long winter’s nap. So when the clocks change in March and the light lingers into the evening again, it’s a welcome shift.
Of course, this is the Pacific Northwest. Extra daylight does not necessarily mean extra sunshine. This past Sunday, the first day of Daylight Saving Time, it rained all day. The sky remained gray all day. But even on that dreary day, the longer light lifted my mood a little.
Our neighbors in British Columbia have decided that this year they will not return to standard time in the fall. If that plan holds, Washington State will be an hour behind the Canadians come November—unless we follow suit.
In 2019, the Washington State Legislature passed a law to adopt permanent Daylight Saving Time to end the bi-annual clock changes. However, this change cannot take effect because it requires authorization from the U.S. Congress, which has not yet approved the necessary federal changes.
What are the odds of Congress acting in today’s political climate? Let’s just say I’m not holding my breath—though I will happily enjoy the longer evenings as long as they last.
One nuisance attached to Daylight Saving Time is the ritual of changing the clocks. The ones connected to the internet—phones, computers, and a few newer appliances—take care of themselves, which is a significant technological advance, in my opinion.
But we still have about ten clocks that require human intervention. The microwave. The stove. The car. A bedside clock. And a couple of clocks I always forget until I glance at them days later and wonder why they seem wrong. Adjusting clocks manually in the spring is not too bad—I just have to advance them by one hour. But turning them back in the fall is difficult—most must be moved forward eleven hours, or in the case of my husband’s clock set on military time, forward twenty-three hours.
Until the federal and state governments get in sync, I will continue to change the clocks twice a year. But for the next several months, I’ll enjoy the longer evenings. Even in the rainy Pacific Northwest that extra hour of light at the end of the day will brighten my mood.
Do you want a permanent time set? If so are you Team Daylight or Team Standard?
I think the click should not change, how the meridian wants it to be. But the shops schools and entreprises should have a summer schedule and a winter schedule, according to the light….