Daylight Savings

Pipestone Star 11-08-12

Hopefully, everyone remembered to set their clocks back one hour on Saturday night.  I’ve always noticed that there are always a few people late for church the following morning and that just brings back memories of the times I’ve forgotten, which is really only a problem when you have a plane to catch the next morning.  No laughing, please.

Daylight savings time annoys me, I’ll admit that right now.  I don’t like having to remember it and my children always seem to take a few days to reorient themselves, which makes bedtimes painful.  I used to love the gained hour, now I just want to free myself of the hassle of the change in the first place.  Not that this is likely to happen anytime soon, mind you.  I caught myself wondering about the reasons behind the change, so I thought I’d share them with you, now that the trauma is over.

I always thought it was just the United States that participated in changing the clocks, but it’s not.  Most of Europe and parts of Australia, South America, the Middle East, and Africa also set their clocks backward and forward, though not necessarily at exactly the same time as we do.  Daylight Savings was first proposed in 1895, but it wasn’t implemented until World War One.  The reasoning behind DST is that people are more active in the evening, so it is better to put some daylight hours there, rather to waste the daylight in the early morning, when people tend to be sleeping.

Honestly, I had no idea of the effects this switch could have.  I thought of the sleep pattern disruption, but I never thought about the effect that some dairy farmers say it has on a cow’s milking schedule (remember, I’m originally a city girl).  There are contradicting reports as to whether it reduces or increases energy costs: it can cut down on the lighting needed to do outdoor activities, but can increase the power needed for cooling in the summer time.  DST is great for retailers, especially those in the sports equipment business, since people tend to participate in afternoon sports because of the increased daylight, but prime-time television suffers, as do theaters since people would rather be outside while the sun is up.   Not surprising, then, that many shows take a hiatus in the summer, with the new season starting in late September as summer activities wear to a close.  I never related that to the time change, but it makes sense!

The time itself does not actually change until 2:00 AM, both in the spring and the autumn, though I change my clocks before we go to bed on Saturday night.  That means, if you have a flight scheduled to take off at 1:45 AM (crazy, but it happens), you may land earlier than when you took off, depending on how long the flight is and where you’re headed.  In the spring, the clock changes from 1:59:59 straight to 3:00:00, and in the autumn, from 1:59:59 to 1:00:00.  In Great Britain, they change at 1:00 AM instead of 2:00, and other countries also have different times at which they change.  Start and end dates also differ, with some parts of Europe observing daylight savings AFTER the United States has switched over, and Europe switches back before the US does.  In the southern hemisphere, their DST occurs from October to March (not the other way around) to coincide with their summer season.   I have never been less jealous of airline schedulers as I am right now.  Imagine the nightmare of trying to coordinate all those time zones and changes!

Have a great week, everyone!  Look at it this way, the election is over (when I write this, I have no idea what the outcome will be) and the political adds are over.  Thanksgiving is on its way, and books are coming out for Christmas.  Stay tuned for the next article when we’ll look at some of the blockbusters that you could put under your tree!

PAFL Update:  Pipestone Area Friends of the Library is looking for members – anyone who is a friend to Meinders Library is welcome to join!  The Friends group works hard to promote the library, raise money for projects, and organize their yearly book sale, in addition to the HUGE amount of support they provide throughout the year.  For more information, please contact the library!  PAFL will be having a fundraiser on November 5^th at Pizza Ranch.  Come have some great pizza and support your local library!!

Book Club Reminder:  Book Club will be meeting November 15^th at 7:00 PM in the Meinders Library Conference room.  The book is The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht.  Please contact the library for a copy of the next book and feel free to join up with our readers!  Everyone is welcome!

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.