I was up at 7 AM today – taking out the trash. Not my favorite morning activity at the best of times, but today it seemed far worse stumbling about in the morning gloom. For this we can thank the authorities in North America who have decreed a month longer stretch of Daylight Savings Time than we used to have, We won’t fall back until November 2 this year, unlike our friends in Europe who did so on Oct 26.
It’s supposed to save energy and maybe it does. All I know is that with cloud cover such as you normally get at this time of year, it’ll be 8 AM before you need to switch off the car headlights. Considering most folks around here have to drive to work long before that, it isn’t the safest time of day – not with wildlife out there near the roads. Not to mention kids and school buses.
It’s getting dark before 6 PM now at our longitude and latitude so I don’t see that we are saving much daylight either.
DST makes a far too early return next spring in our little part of the world. It’s 3 weeks earlier at least than it used to be. We are just getting to a decent amount of morning illumination when we are plunged back into midwinter darkness. The extra daylight we get in the evening isn’t much good either. It’s too cold and icy for much in the way of after work activity.
Oh well, after I took out the trash I didn’t have to head out to work, so I should be grateful for that much at least. Just came back in and put on the coffee.