My hubby moved his clock the weekend BEFORE the ‘change’ and proudly told me I only had to do the stove and the microwave. I just stared at him. On the correct day, he actually climbed the step ladder to change my battery operated kitchen clock. Later, he tossed me the digital clock from the tv stand. I have the instruction manual taped to it for precisely this reason.
The house down from us was recently purchased. The new owners put up really neat Halloween decorations. But then the DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN they TOOK THEM DOWN and replaced them with their CHRISTMAS decorations! I cannot EVEN believe these people! They've made the whole neighborhood look lazy, LOL I went the lazy way this year for sure, we only cut one jack o lantern and now the extra pumpkins stay on the porch for thanksgiving decorations.
I am also one who prefers the natural time meaning the winter version if given a choice. That said, I would be happy if just one would be settled on. Ugg on changing 2x a year.
Several years ago I went to to a horsemanship in a city in Indiana that is located on the border of a DST area and a non DST area. The north side of the barn was DST, the west side was not. Our cell phones would switch back and forth as we moved around. Agreeing on a time to meet after breaks was, um, interesting.
I feel your pain. Good luck figuring out which tower your cell phone is pinging. I hope you all agreed to go by horse time instead. Surely they have a better system.
While horses do have a better system we agreed to go by the west barn time as that seemed to fluctuate the least. We made it work and had a lot of laughs with it.
#1 the whole time change thing needs to stop - I don’t care which way we go, just … make it stop
#2 what do you mean nothing happens in March? St Patrick’s Day for starters; March Madness; if you’re Episcopalian then Lent Madness (look it up); and sometimes even Easter! Talk about your decorating transitions!
I had to pick a month, and March was it. It does have holidays, but not ones most families travel for, save for the occasional stray Easter. Actually, that one might be the worst holiday. It's all over the calendar.
I loathe Daylight Saving Time, which is the only proper response. This year, I had the added bonus of being in the Central Time Zone when it happened, and flew back to the Pacific Time Zone the next day. I was in danger of being an example of spontaneous human combustion.
I live in a tiny state on the east coast, so learning you have more than one time zone blows my mind. The whole standard/daylight savings time switcheroo is bad enough! I don’t think I’m strong enough to live in a place where half the counties are in a different time zone from me.
I was in Australia at Christmastime a few years ago. Santa drove onto the beach in a jeep like vehicle to visit with a group of swimsuit clad children. Oh, and the lifeguards wore Santa hats. Very festive.
Had to laugh at the stink’s line. Right now I have two 3 month old Shepador’s. Half German Shepard, half lab. They are not potty trained. They know to potty outside, and do, but if they’re inside and gotta go they just go. So stink I understand. Also the clocks changing suck donkey balls.
- I spent Christmas in Australia when I was 12 (30 years ago). We used a eucalyptus tree as our Christmas tree.
- We are THAT house in the neighborhood with our lights up all year. So much easier to just flip the switch Nov. 1st rather than “get out the ladder”.
- You could move to Saskatchewan to avoid daylight savings time in theory. Some parts of the province don’t participate in DST. But then again it might be just as confusing.
Indiana used to not change when I lived in Indiana, which was even worse. Half the year we were on the same time as Indiana and half the year was anyone's guess. As for being that house, it must have been magical to be done decorating your house in ten seconds every year.
Here are the thoughts I got after reading your newsletter:
+ There was a plan few years ago to abandon time change in the entire EU, but thanks to covid it was postponed and until now there are no dates set. When there was a poll, majority of people (at least in my place) wanted to stay in the summer time (this is where I think differently - I prefer winter time, as I like to wake up in natural sunlight; besides, everybody is sitting long hours in the evenings in artificial light).
+ I'm odd in many ways and yet another is that I use Roman numerals to write down months in a date (i. e. today's I'd write as 6 XI 2023) and sometimes use clocks with them (my grandparents, for example, have majority of their clocks this way). I think it's rare opportunity to use the knowledge from primary school about this system. It can also be the little and not problematic tribute to the Romans, as our civilization draws a lot from their achievements.
+ Getting the news from YouTube and memes is how my brothers are getting informed in world matters, too (I rely mostly on browsing myself, because I feel having many sources broadens the perspective). It's remarkable they can use YT in a productive way, given how often they show "funny"/"stupid" clips (depending on the perspective).
+ Our family cat is also immune to DST, wandering across the garden whenever she wants to. She needs us only to let her out the garage (where she sleeps) every morning. She's signalling that by punching loudly so the noise is heard in the living room the wooden plank that we left for her to trim nails while in there.
+ Regarding Christmas decorations, our national tradition allows to keep them as long as February 2nd - the Candlemas, so it's not a rare occurance to see them present until that day in many houses and sometimes in public space.
Why February 2nd? Is there a secret European end of Christmas holiday I don't know about? As for your cat, I'm impressed you can hear her punching. You might want to sign her up for cat boxing.
It's not a continent-wide thing, but a minor Catholic tradition present in my area (however I don't know the roots of it). On that day local church around me focuses on celebrating the holiday of Our Lady of Candlemas and for reasons unknown to me somebody decided it'll be a good day to make a traditional habit of ending the locally extended Christmas celebration period.
And people here think we're strange for using the 24 hour clock in the US. My wife and I were both in professions that use it (nursing and aviation). I just think it makes more sense than the 12 hour clock.
You might tell folks in the EU that the US experimented with year-round DST in the 1970s and everybody HATED it. The sun rises super-late if you keep it through the heart of winter, which means kids are going to school in the pitch black dark. Everyone thinks they love DST/ summer time, but what they really love are the longer hours of natural light, which happens no matter what we do with the clock. What we need to do is go back to standard time year-round, where "noon" actually does mean the middle of the day where the sun is straight overhead, and adjust our business hours as needed to give people their time in the sun.
Ha ha, I'm geeky enough that I'd love that job. ;-) I had a scheme for creating a universal 24-hour clock so that it would be the same time everywhere in the world, followed up by a single letter to let you know what part of the day it is according to the sun locally. It would sure make scheduling videoconferences a lot easier!
I totally agree with you! Didn't know about that tryout, but I can imagine what a disaster it must've been for everyone. When the DST debate returns, I'll spread a word.
March is MrP's and my wedding anniversary, our daughter's wedding anniversary, several family birthdays and normally Spring Break week of which I no longer care about since I retired ( worked at a college so an extra week off/yay). But it does need a "regular" and official holiday.
Just this morning I glanced at a wall clock that has a time from when the battery died, so I agree with you on those being just decoration. And now I need to go change the couple of clocks that didn't automatically change. It is the only time of year when I realize just how many unnecessary clocks are in this house.
Our son went to college in Indiana so there were times it made it difficult to get to his baseball games before Illinois went to same time zone as there.
And here in Az. we do not do DST, which means there is actually just an Az time. Sometimes we are in Pacific time, sometimes not. Even the TV shows are messed up for half of the year. We are 2 or 3 hrs behind EST and sometimes I even figure out which it is, unless of course my brother back in Cincinnati has pissed me off yet again and then I simply play dumb blonde just to mess with him. By now you'd think he'd have figured it out.... LOL
I kind of use Daylight savings time to transition from "Spooky Fall Halloween Decor" to the "Sophisticated Fall Thanksgiving Decor". Feels like there's enough time in between to let the Halloween spirit phase out without feeling rushed. But then when Black Friday hits, all that fall decor gets yeeted out to make room for Christmas
I'm kinda ambivalent about DST, even thought it is crazy how early it gets dark and I'm happy when that trend reverses again. I really disliked it when I was working outside the home and went to work in the dark and came home in the dark. My hubby does that now and he hates it. I still keep hearing that there is an end to DST in sight. We used to live in Indiana. The time zones! Ack! Definitely confusing. And the holiday decor part of your piece reminded me of neighbors we had years ago who put up their Christmas tree on Thanksgiving and took it down on December 26th every year. To me this felt like the back to school ads that are out on July 5th. What a buzzkill! We get our tree in mid-December and take it down after the epiphany or three kings day (January 6th). In our tradition, the 25th is not one and done. The holiday goes on for a while, which I like. But to each his own! We'll be getting out the ladder before you know it. I do like the idea of flipping a switch each year as opposed to killing ourselves hanging lights...
I knew a guy who used to throw out his tree by the afternoon of December 25th. The dude just wanted to sit in his chair and watch basketball. The tree was a distraction.
I love DST. Before it passed in Indiana it would start getting light at five in the freaking morning. The first time I took a vacation in Michigan and experienced that heavenly late sunset, I was sold. It helps that I no longer have any clocks that have to be changed manually.
But this time of year it doesn't matter. It's dark when I go in for my 12 hour shift; it's dark when I get off work. Miserable.
My hubby moved his clock the weekend BEFORE the ‘change’ and proudly told me I only had to do the stove and the microwave. I just stared at him. On the correct day, he actually climbed the step ladder to change my battery operated kitchen clock. Later, he tossed me the digital clock from the tv stand. I have the instruction manual taped to it for precisely this reason.
Your husband is a visionary. The time change would be that much more fun if we all did it on different weekends.
The house down from us was recently purchased. The new owners put up really neat Halloween decorations. But then the DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN they TOOK THEM DOWN and replaced them with their CHRISTMAS decorations! I cannot EVEN believe these people! They've made the whole neighborhood look lazy, LOL I went the lazy way this year for sure, we only cut one jack o lantern and now the extra pumpkins stay on the porch for thanksgiving decorations.
Overachievers. Tell them their house is haunted to get them to leave. Time for the neighborhood to band together for a Scooby-doo style plot.
great idea!
Whatever happened to Thanksgiving decorations? We have a six foot tall inflatable Thanksgiving turkey in our front yard.
The nerve of those people!
Your massive turkey scared all the other decorations away.
I am also one who prefers the natural time meaning the winter version if given a choice. That said, I would be happy if just one would be settled on. Ugg on changing 2x a year.
Several years ago I went to to a horsemanship in a city in Indiana that is located on the border of a DST area and a non DST area. The north side of the barn was DST, the west side was not. Our cell phones would switch back and forth as we moved around. Agreeing on a time to meet after breaks was, um, interesting.
I feel your pain. Good luck figuring out which tower your cell phone is pinging. I hope you all agreed to go by horse time instead. Surely they have a better system.
While horses do have a better system we agreed to go by the west barn time as that seemed to fluctuate the least. We made it work and had a lot of laughs with it.
At least you always had a great excuse for being late.
#1 the whole time change thing needs to stop - I don’t care which way we go, just … make it stop
#2 what do you mean nothing happens in March? St Patrick’s Day for starters; March Madness; if you’re Episcopalian then Lent Madness (look it up); and sometimes even Easter! Talk about your decorating transitions!
I had to pick a month, and March was it. It does have holidays, but not ones most families travel for, save for the occasional stray Easter. Actually, that one might be the worst holiday. It's all over the calendar.
I loathe Daylight Saving Time, which is the only proper response. This year, I had the added bonus of being in the Central Time Zone when it happened, and flew back to the Pacific Time Zone the next day. I was in danger of being an example of spontaneous human combustion.
You might never know what time it is again.
I live in a tiny state on the east coast, so learning you have more than one time zone blows my mind. The whole standard/daylight savings time switcheroo is bad enough! I don’t think I’m strong enough to live in a place where half the counties are in a different time zone from me.
The best policy is to shun those counties and hope they get the hint.
I lived in Newfoundland Canada for a few years growing up. They are a half hour off Atlantic time. A half hour. No one ever got it right calling in.
I was in Australia at Christmastime a few years ago. Santa drove onto the beach in a jeep like vehicle to visit with a group of swimsuit clad children. Oh, and the lifeguards wore Santa hats. Very festive.
Did you see him fight a kangaroo? I hear that's Australian Santa's specialty.
Move to Az. and you get tumbleweed snowman and crazy people who put lights on big sticky cactus, nuts. LOL
I could go for a cactus Christmas tree. It would solve the problem of pets attacking them.
Yes but picking up the "needles" is a lot harder
Had to laugh at the stink’s line. Right now I have two 3 month old Shepador’s. Half German Shepard, half lab. They are not potty trained. They know to potty outside, and do, but if they’re inside and gotta go they just go. So stink I understand. Also the clocks changing suck donkey balls.
My condolences on the German Shepherds. That is not small poop.
Lab and shepard mix. And no, they are not.
This post garnered many thoughts…
- I spent Christmas in Australia when I was 12 (30 years ago). We used a eucalyptus tree as our Christmas tree.
- We are THAT house in the neighborhood with our lights up all year. So much easier to just flip the switch Nov. 1st rather than “get out the ladder”.
- You could move to Saskatchewan to avoid daylight savings time in theory. Some parts of the province don’t participate in DST. But then again it might be just as confusing.
Indiana used to not change when I lived in Indiana, which was even worse. Half the year we were on the same time as Indiana and half the year was anyone's guess. As for being that house, it must have been magical to be done decorating your house in ten seconds every year.
Here are the thoughts I got after reading your newsletter:
+ There was a plan few years ago to abandon time change in the entire EU, but thanks to covid it was postponed and until now there are no dates set. When there was a poll, majority of people (at least in my place) wanted to stay in the summer time (this is where I think differently - I prefer winter time, as I like to wake up in natural sunlight; besides, everybody is sitting long hours in the evenings in artificial light).
+ I'm odd in many ways and yet another is that I use Roman numerals to write down months in a date (i. e. today's I'd write as 6 XI 2023) and sometimes use clocks with them (my grandparents, for example, have majority of their clocks this way). I think it's rare opportunity to use the knowledge from primary school about this system. It can also be the little and not problematic tribute to the Romans, as our civilization draws a lot from their achievements.
+ Getting the news from YouTube and memes is how my brothers are getting informed in world matters, too (I rely mostly on browsing myself, because I feel having many sources broadens the perspective). It's remarkable they can use YT in a productive way, given how often they show "funny"/"stupid" clips (depending on the perspective).
+ Our family cat is also immune to DST, wandering across the garden whenever she wants to. She needs us only to let her out the garage (where she sleeps) every morning. She's signalling that by punching loudly so the noise is heard in the living room the wooden plank that we left for her to trim nails while in there.
+ Regarding Christmas decorations, our national tradition allows to keep them as long as February 2nd - the Candlemas, so it's not a rare occurance to see them present until that day in many houses and sometimes in public space.
Why February 2nd? Is there a secret European end of Christmas holiday I don't know about? As for your cat, I'm impressed you can hear her punching. You might want to sign her up for cat boxing.
It's not a continent-wide thing, but a minor Catholic tradition present in my area (however I don't know the roots of it). On that day local church around me focuses on celebrating the holiday of Our Lady of Candlemas and for reasons unknown to me somebody decided it'll be a good day to make a traditional habit of ending the locally extended Christmas celebration period.
And people here think we're strange for using the 24 hour clock in the US. My wife and I were both in professions that use it (nursing and aviation). I just think it makes more sense than the 12 hour clock.
I think you're right!
You might tell folks in the EU that the US experimented with year-round DST in the 1970s and everybody HATED it. The sun rises super-late if you keep it through the heart of winter, which means kids are going to school in the pitch black dark. Everyone thinks they love DST/ summer time, but what they really love are the longer hours of natural light, which happens no matter what we do with the clock. What we need to do is go back to standard time year-round, where "noon" actually does mean the middle of the day where the sun is straight overhead, and adjust our business hours as needed to give people their time in the sun.
This is the way. How can I vote for you to be president of time?
Ha ha, I'm geeky enough that I'd love that job. ;-) I had a scheme for creating a universal 24-hour clock so that it would be the same time everywhere in the world, followed up by a single letter to let you know what part of the day it is according to the sun locally. It would sure make scheduling videoconferences a lot easier!
I want America to have two time zones: East and West, with the Mississippi as the dividing line. It's the only system I'll be able to remember.
I totally agree with you! Didn't know about that tryout, but I can imagine what a disaster it must've been for everyone. When the DST debate returns, I'll spread a word.
March is MrP's and my wedding anniversary, our daughter's wedding anniversary, several family birthdays and normally Spring Break week of which I no longer care about since I retired ( worked at a college so an extra week off/yay). But it does need a "regular" and official holiday.
Just this morning I glanced at a wall clock that has a time from when the battery died, so I agree with you on those being just decoration. And now I need to go change the couple of clocks that didn't automatically change. It is the only time of year when I realize just how many unnecessary clocks are in this house.
Our son went to college in Indiana so there were times it made it difficult to get to his baseball games before Illinois went to same time zone as there.
The days of Illinois and Indiana being on different time zones practically brought the Midwest to the brink of war. Very glad those are over.
And here in Az. we do not do DST, which means there is actually just an Az time. Sometimes we are in Pacific time, sometimes not. Even the TV shows are messed up for half of the year. We are 2 or 3 hrs behind EST and sometimes I even figure out which it is, unless of course my brother back in Cincinnati has pissed me off yet again and then I simply play dumb blonde just to mess with him. By now you'd think he'd have figured it out.... LOL
Indiana didn't change for a while and that was even worse. I want everyone to stay the same together. If some change and some don't, all is lost.
Lmao - I did not see your post til now - mine is an Arizonans trouble with DST!
I kind of use Daylight savings time to transition from "Spooky Fall Halloween Decor" to the "Sophisticated Fall Thanksgiving Decor". Feels like there's enough time in between to let the Halloween spirit phase out without feeling rushed. But then when Black Friday hits, all that fall decor gets yeeted out to make room for Christmas
Black Friday is the hard launch of Christmas. Your yeeting is right and correct.
I'm kinda ambivalent about DST, even thought it is crazy how early it gets dark and I'm happy when that trend reverses again. I really disliked it when I was working outside the home and went to work in the dark and came home in the dark. My hubby does that now and he hates it. I still keep hearing that there is an end to DST in sight. We used to live in Indiana. The time zones! Ack! Definitely confusing. And the holiday decor part of your piece reminded me of neighbors we had years ago who put up their Christmas tree on Thanksgiving and took it down on December 26th every year. To me this felt like the back to school ads that are out on July 5th. What a buzzkill! We get our tree in mid-December and take it down after the epiphany or three kings day (January 6th). In our tradition, the 25th is not one and done. The holiday goes on for a while, which I like. But to each his own! We'll be getting out the ladder before you know it. I do like the idea of flipping a switch each year as opposed to killing ourselves hanging lights...
I knew a guy who used to throw out his tree by the afternoon of December 25th. The dude just wanted to sit in his chair and watch basketball. The tree was a distraction.
Too funny! I wonder how his family felt about that?
I love DST. Before it passed in Indiana it would start getting light at five in the freaking morning. The first time I took a vacation in Michigan and experienced that heavenly late sunset, I was sold. It helps that I no longer have any clocks that have to be changed manually.
But this time of year it doesn't matter. It's dark when I go in for my 12 hour shift; it's dark when I get off work. Miserable.
I'm convinced the sun is already on vacation and it's only November. It's going to be a long winter.
Kangaroos, not crocodiles
That's too much power for one man to control.
https://www.lovesanta.com.au/2015/names-of-the-six-white-boomers/