Day Light Savings Time

“Just Thinking”

Its November and its Fall and its Day Light Savings Time and it is the Holiday Season, it’s that time of year. Personally, I am not a fan of Day Light Savings Time (DST) especially in Fall, which is when it comes off, I think, it is still confusing to me. Spring forward, fall back, DST starts in the Spring and ends in the Fall. There is a 3-hour time difference between us and Hawaii, but not all of the time because Hawaii doesn’t do DST, so when is it 2 hours and when is it 3 hours. What is the real time anyway, is it what we have going on now, or what is going on in the spring, or is it somewhere in the middle. 

When we were younger DST started in October, usually before Halloween, which was great for trick or treating and for getting out of football practice early. But I hated having to leave the house in the dark and get home in the dark and this was happening right at the time when the weather starts to change to cold, let’s just say I’m not a fan.

It seems that the idea of DST is often credited to one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, he proposed a similar concept in 1784 as a way to save on candle usage. But it was first used in the United States in 1918 during World War I as a temporary measure to conserve the fuel needed for artificial lighting. It was terribly unpopular (see, I’m not alone) and repealed in 1919. It was reintroduced in 1942 during World War II and remained in effect year-round until 1945 when the war ended, I’m thinking that it was still unpopular.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardized DST nationwide, setting the start and end dates while allowing states to opt out. This law established DST from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended DST by about a month, setting it from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, which remains the current schedule. This is where we are today, most of the United States observe DST, except for Hawaii and most of Arizona, the Navajo Nation does not observe DST.

Here is how I deal with DST, Halloween starts it all off, it gets dark early and starts to get colder, this is the first step on the road to Thanksgiving, time for flannel shirts and fleece vests, too much to eat, but then relaxing with leftovers for a nice long weekend (no Black Friday, I said relaxing). Now it is Christmas season, shopping and parties, definitely sweaters and jackets are donned on Christmas eve and Christmas day. A short reprieve and we fire up the engines to celebrate the New Year. From there it is the dark days of January, baseball practice starts in February which coincidentally coincides with rain in Northern California. St. Valentine’s Day in Feb, St. Patrick's Day in March and before you know it, it’s Day Light Savings time, when I gladly trade an hour in bed for an hour of sunshine.

So it’s November and DST, but the long days of summer are just around the corner.

Let me know what you think.

 @ChuckBarberini - #ChuckBarberiniRealEstate - @ChuckBarberiniRealEstate

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