The Worst Day of the Year is This Sunday

You know what I like? Sunlight. The more, the better. Now with that said, I don't want the sun up all the time like in some parts of Alaska where broad daylight is still happening at 2:00 a.m.; I like my sleep, and darkness obviously helps with that tremendously, but I also like to have some daylight left when I get home from work. Yet for five months out of the year, that gets taken away because for some reason we still observe a silly policy that you could argue isn't needed in today's world.

This Sunday (November 1st, 2020), the Tri-State, like so many other areas of the world will "fall back" one hour before calling it a night to observe daylight saving time. Yes, this means the sun rises sooner, but when you get up at 3:30 in the morning to get ready for work, and are at work by 4:15 a.m. like I am, the extra daylight in the morning does no good. I'm at work and can only enjoy it by looking out the window.

I haven't always been this crotchety about setting the clocks back an hour, at least it doesn't feel like I have. It really seems to have set in the older I've become, even before my schedule shifted to the early morning hours in the spring of 2018. I can't put my finger on exactly why to be honest, but I have a theory.

While I don't mind cold weather, my preference are sunny days in the upper 60s to low 70s, just warm enough to get by with a t-shirt and shorts and be comfortable, but not so warm I sweat just standing still.

I also like to play golf when I can, and fire up the grill to make dinner. Yes, both of those things can be done year-round, but I don't want to wear three layers of clothes to play a round of golf, and even though I have and will grill in cold weather, I prefer the natural light of the sun to help me see when it's time to take the meat off the grill instead of holding a flashlight in my mouth (which I've done several times). Setting the clocks back an hour signals an official end to all of that to me.

As I sit and type that out, it certainly sounds like I don't like change. But I don't feel like that's it. Things change all the time, much of which I'm in favor of. Hmmm. Maybe it's because this particular change impacts me directly, where other forms don't necessarily change my life in any way. Am I selfish? That question may require a therapist to answer.

If there is any silver lining to falling back an hour, it's that it doesn't last long as long as it used to. We'll be able to get that hour back on March 14th, 2021. I'll be counting the days.

By the way, if you'd like to find out why we do this in the first place (thanks Ben Franklin), the website, Live Science, has a whole guide to the history of daylight saving time that's worth a read.