The Senate approves a bill to make Daylight Savings Time permanent. Your thoughts?

I will miss changing clocks, if for no other reason than I have done it for 60+ years and it mentally marked the difference between a summer mentality and a winter mentality.

That said, I don’t really care. I gets dark every night anyway.

It is good to see that the 2 parties can come together to agree on the really important things.

The last we had year round DST (in the 70s because of the oil embargo), people realized it was stupid because it didn’t get light out in the winter time until people were at school or work.

And people complain if we stay on standard time year round because then it gets light out before 5 in the morning during the summer.

There’s no pleasing people.

I have thought for a long time we should move a half hour ahead and then stay there.

To be honest one hour is not a big deal for me. The process gives me an excuse to set all the clocks in the house and cars to the second. It is also a good time to check backup batteries and smoke detectors.

If we were to compromise on 30 minutes one way or the other, that would put us out of synch with most of the world.

We would only be synchronized with :
India
Some Australian States
Lord Howe Island: UTC +10:30 / +11:00
New Zealand
Canada, Newfoundland
Sri Lanka
Afghanistan
Iran
Myanmar
French Polynesia, Marquesas Islands

(I might have missed a couple.)

I would like the clock to be dialed back about 18,000 hours.
One time event.

I think I will like it. Not sure until I live through one winter with daylight.
My dog would have loved having no time change. It confused her.

I have never been in favor of DST. I do not know why school and employment hours couldn’t adjust to accomplish the same purpose. However, what it is is what it is.

As a night person, I always kinda enjoyed having an extra hour of light in the evenings!!! Now, as an elderly female, I find that extra hour of light to give me a little more time to get my shopping done & get home & inside before it’s so dark I can’t see to get inside!!! My body doesn’t work well in the early morning so I’ve gotten accustomed to shopping later in the day. I remember when they tried to stop it 50–60 years ago. It was nice to still have the extra hour of light at night & I didn’t wake up early enough to need the light an hour earlier in the morning. Then some politician started screaming that children’s lives were being put in danger while standing at the bus stop & people went nuts. At that point, I don’t think any child had been harmed, but the “possibility” drove the insanity. So we went back to changing our clocks twice a year.

The original DST was set up to give farmers extra daylight hours. By the time it was started again in the late 60’s or early 70’s, farmers had better options.The REAL reason Congress was pushing DST so hard was that corporate America wanted the extra hour in the afternoon so the executives could play golf & land their big deals!!! My Gramps swore that it NEVER did anything for the farmer as he still woke up at 4:30 every morning…he just had a longer time in the dark to get his morning chores done. He did say it came in handy in the afternoon when he was working with his crops because he could get a little more done. He woke up at the same time & went to sleep at the same time so it NEVER really gave him any EXTRA time in his day. He was always grumbling…there’s only 24 hours in a day & they aren’t changing that. I wish they’d stop blowing smoke up my ass!!!

I’ve NEVER had trouble with my body adjusting to the switch in time although I’ve heard friends talking about it. No, I take that back. I did have ONE time where I was in a bad or grumpy mood for about 3 days & then I was back to normal the morning of day 4.

I just wish that they’d find a place & leave it there!!! Half my friends prefer mornings with the other half preferring evenings. I prefer evenings but I can adjust to pretty much anything. My thoughts is to split 30 minutes either way & that way NOBODY has to lose it all!!!

Now that farmers really don’t NEED it & the corporate executives can speak over zoom to finalize their deals, WHY do we still need it??? Also, WHY wait until 2023 to change it. It’s really NOT that difficult to change!!!

Thought this was a States rights thing, as in the state and not feds make those decisions. Still, when stuff like this happens makes me wonder what they’re really working on using this as a distraction.

I would rather standard time year round. I’m not sure why that’s never even considered. So what if it gets light early in the morning in the summer? Maybe people should get up earlier.

@Chestnut of course it is a distraction. Something lightweight like this is far easier for lawmakers to deal with than serious stuff like budgets and rights.

@LadyMarissa It wasn’t corporate executives playing golf, they play during the day. It was the Little League parents and softball leagues.

Fine by me.

@zenvelo I was working on Capital Hill at the time & it wasn’t little league parents or teams coming in to lobby the Senators…it was CEO’s & the like from corporations!!! I also typed up the reports from my Aids that informed my Senator what he was interested in discussing publically.

I’m glad they didn’t vote to make Standard Time permanent.

LOL

@LadyMarissa what does lobbying senators have to do with little league, golf or DST?

I am a morning person. I see DST as losing an hour of sunshine in the morning. I would prefer to do away with it.

Please lets have this pass. I would love to do away with Daylight Savings Time. We are in the 21st century here.

You’re a morning person @LostInParadise?? Don’t talk to me!!!

I don’t care. Just make it permanent one way or the other and have done with the back and forth crap. The world will continue to spin regardless.

I personally don’t have an opinion, although I think it’s cool the politicians came together for this ultra-miniscule innocuous issue.

Don’t make no matter to me either way.

Right? Just leave it one way or the other. I prefer DST.

I have a strong opinion, this needs to happen. An extra hour of daylight in the evenings means the world to me in Winter. Leaving it in year round means it will not get dark here until 7 around the Winter solstice. I get so depressed when it’s dark by 6. I need daylight for most of my outdoor activities. Clock changes never bothered me when I was younger, now they do. There is also considerable confusion when some communities either observe or don’t observe it. I hope everyone gets on the same page here. Now, that said… there is a considerable amount of work to be done to computers and systems that automatically adjust for DST. Some of them are quite critical to our infrastructure.

The Sun would be highest at 1:00 under DST, not 12:00. That would make the term “high noon” inaccurate. I dry stuff in the back yard a lot so I use time to help face the items towards the Sun for the maximum drying time.

@RocketGuy If it goes through, we’ll let you know so you can adjust your drying time accordingly. :-)

I’m all for it. I have a house full of clocks, and the twice yearly pain in the ass of the garages with the ladders for the battery operated models is an unnecessary chore. The batteries last at minimum18 months in a clock, and I will be content to switch the bunch every 14 months instead of twice yearly. I will still bitch about it (of course).

@RocketGuy I use a similar process when I position my solar lights for recharging.

@Blackwater_Park There’s a switch on my computer that tells it to auto adjust. All I need to do is uncheck the box & it NO longer self adjusts!!! I’d really enjoy an extra hour during the Winter months.

@LuckyGuy…but that doesn’t depend on the time…..

@Dutchess_III It does when you have an automatic time do it.

@LadyMarissa The problem is a little like the Y2K thing. There is a lot of equipment that is either hard coded or someone is going to have to “remember” to change the settings on.

For me, the Y2K thing turned out to be a non-issue. Somebody will just create new coding to adjust to the “real life” situation.

^ I actually think it was a bigger issue than people let on. I was working for an insurance company back then and they had to hire 2 full time employees to go through everything and make sure all accounting, billing, auditing areas were fixed to accept Y2K dates. This took an entire year. It was my understanding that it was even worse in the banking industry, but I don’t know that for a fact.

@chyna It was much bigger than people realize. A lot of the banking code was COBOL, finding people who could program in that language at the beginning was probably a task.

@Blackwater_Park Very true. We go through fits at rescheduling things for DST. US and EU being different dates for the switch make it even more a pain

I was disappointed that nothing seemed to happen on Y2K. It was just another day.

@Dutchess_III You wrote: “I was disappointed that nothing seemed to happen on Y2K. It was just another day.”

Yep. That is exactly how it should have been. A lot of hardware was rebuilt and software rewritten so there would be no interruptions. It worked!

I was disappointed nothing happened in 2012.
Fucking Maya. So unreliable.
But not as unreliable as 3ds Max! EYOOOOOO!

It was tried before unsuccessfully. One big problem was having young children walk to school in the dark

@LostInParadise Please read this. It addresses the numbers related to the dangers of kids going to or from school in the dark, as well as other considerations.

https://www.sciencealert.com/here-are-5-ways-life-would-be-better-if-we-made-daylight-saving-time-permanent

Interesting. It does not specifically mention children walking to school in the dark, but that must have been included in the calculation of lives saved.

Your article says nothing about kids going to school in the dark @canidmajor. In fact it asserts that “Simply put, darkness kills – and darkness in the evening is far deadlier than darkness in the morning.”
People seem to be overly concerned with how dark it is in the mornings, when kids are going to school.
My kids could see in the dark. And I taught them how to properly, and safely, cross streets.

Permanent Standard Time is healthier than year round DST.

@Dutchess_III It isn’t your kids and grandkids being able to see in the dark, it’s the older people driving cars that can’t see in the dark and running over kids!

@Dutchess_III The point that was made is that it is more dangerous in the afternoon for the kids, because they come out of school at staggered times, and people are tired coming home from work, and maybe stopped for a drink. Not that kids are safe (an absolute) in the morning, but that they are safer in the dark of morning than they are in the dark of afternoon.

Careless, distracted driving is what I taught them to look for @zenvelo.
And to NEVER walk in front of a car unless it has stopped and they motion you to cross.

I’m agree with you on that @canidmajor. puts hand on forehead to see if I have a fever!

Getting off a school bus is a whole lot more dangerous than walking to school in the dark.

The same parents who complain about their kids going to or coming home from school in the dark think NOTHING of letting those same kids go out Trick or Treating all by themselves after dark because it’s too much trouble to accompany them!!!

I didn’t think that kids walked to school anymore and most think it’s an insult to have to ride the bus. Maybe parents should drive their kid to/from school so the county can save a fortune in buses and driver salaries.

Buses are for country kids, or kids who are bussed outside of their home district. Lots of kids still walk to and from school.

We’re not rural here, but there are buses as well, the kids who walk are within a certain range of the school.
@LadyMarissa, your ideas only work in the more privileged sector, where every family has a car, where people don’t have to work weird hours, where people don’t have to work more than one job.

Your rather negative view of “parents” doesn’t address much in the way of reality.

The more complex a system the easier for it to screw up.

If the bill is passed I don’t have to keep changing my inner clock all the time.

The changes barely affect me at all. It doesn’t affect my pets at all, either.

^^^^ @Dutchess_III If they don’t affect you, why are you such a strong proponent of year round DST? Just want to make everybody else’s lives miserable?

What is up with your grinding assessments of me lately @zenvelo? I am not a militant atheist nor am I a “strong proponent” of DST. I just want them to quit changing the times, like most people. Leave it one way or the other. Doesn’t matter which way.
Of course I don’t want to make “everyone miserable.” That was just a mean jab.

@Dutchess_III You were cheering the upcoming change to DST back in early February, despite tons of evidence that the time change causes innumerable health and safety risks.

And whenever there is a question remotely related to beliefs in a higher power, you make snarky remarks.

@zenvelo Even your WaPo article talks about the safety benefits of DST, as well as my article.

I was cheering the coming of longer, and warmer, days, that’s all.

What could be more fun, than watching a battle of the sexagenarians?! ;)

Yawn. I dunno, maybe King Kong vs. Godzilla? My money is on the monkey, I’ve hated that slimy reptile since I was a kid.

I have my money on the lizard.^

Have they decided?

King Kong 1, stupid slimy reptile, 0. Freaking Godzilla was nothing but a Big Ass snake!

@Dutchess_III last I heard, the House is waffling.

@Nomore_Tantrums and @KRD get a room, or ask your own Q.