DST and Other Things on My Mind

I've been commenting (way too much) about DST over at Masson's Blog . I'm not going to reiterate all of my reasons for intensely disliking DST here. It has struck me though, since we recently returned to Standard Time, that DST isn't only a twice a year nuisance. Under DST, there is no longer the long slow decline of daylight as summer changes to fall, which changes to winter. Nor is there the long, sweet ascent into earlier sunrises as winter changes to spring and spring into summer.

About three quarters of this entry disappeared just as I was publishing it. I'm not about to retype all of that right now. Grrr!

To continue with what I was writing, more or less, probably the thing I dislike most about DST is that it fundamentally alters our relationship with the sun. What say? You didn't know you had one? What was nice about being on Standard Time year round was the gradual shortening of the days from the summer solstice and their corresponding lengthening after the winter solstice. Just as I was getting used to earlier sunrises in late March, DST came on April 2nd and yanked those earlier sunrises backward by four to six weeks. The same happens with sunsets at the end of Daylight Saving Time. Just as I was getting used to 7:00 p.m. sunsets in late October, they became 6:00 p.m. sunsets on Sunday October 29th. I am happy, very very happy to have it be reasonably light outside in the mornings now that we are back on Standard Time. Nevertheless, the 6:00 p.m. sunsets that are typical for this time of year were easier to accept when we had that long slow descent into night that marks the changing of the seasons. Is the abrupt change back and forth from Standard Time to DST a small price to pay for progress? No. I personally have suffered from many fitful nights of sleep this year, all of them coinciding somehow with going on or being on DST. And I know that I am not alone. EST year round wasn't perfect, but it made sense for the vast majority of Indiana for decades. EDT in Indiana makes no sense whatsoever.

Indiana is in the peculiar geographic position of actually being in the Central Time zone, but being "assigned to" the Eastern Time zone. So, even when most of us were on EST all year, we were still an hour ahead of what our geographical location would suggest. Thus, for those of us in the Eastern Time zone, going on Eastern Daylight Time for the first time in decades meant having the sun up until around 10:00 in the summer and sunrise occurring no earlier than 6:00 a.m. (For those readers who have been hearing about Indiana's supposed “time conundrum” for years and years, here's the deal: Most of us didn't observe DST and remained on Eastern Standard Time for 12 months of the year. That's it. There was no confusing patchwork of time zones, no conundrum. Nothing that couldn't be explained in a few breaths. Things were not confusing at all, really, unless people made them so. Furthermore, we weren't the only state that didn't observe DST. Hawaii and most of Arizona still don't spring forward and fall back.)
On a happier note: I was thrilled this weekend when Stéphane Lambiel made an amazing comeback from 7th place to win Skate Canada. Just figure skating, right? Not anymore, it isn't. The internet made it possible for me to follow updates on the competition with Lambiel fans from all over the world. Day and night on Saturday, no matter what time zones we were in, we were thinking of, rooting for, and even praying for Stéphane to at least do well enough in his long program to pull up in the standings. (Boy, did he ever!) A North American contingent of fans attended the event and kept us apprised of everything that they observed throughout the week. (Thanks Swissmiss and all of the other fans who supported Stéphane in Victoria!) On Saturday night, during what was the wee hours of Sunday morning for them, the European fans watched the competition live and gave updates on the message board we all frequent. Flowers to all who stayed up to do that! I have never participated in anything like that before, and it was really fun, especially as it became apparent that Stéphane could win, despite the odds and a less-than-perfect performance. Sometimes, I wish that I had my internet surfing time back to do something else more productive and meaningful. Not so on Saturday night. I wouldn't trade that time for anything. (Well, almost anything, anyway.) Who is Stéphane? His official website is here.