Bless DST!

Tomorrow morning begins what is becoming a cherished tradition in Sugar City -- the noting of what families forgot to put their clocks ahead an hour and thus are arriving at church just as Sacrament Meeting is over.

This never happened to us when I was a kid, and I thought it grossly unfair. Was I the only one, I thought, who could see the benefits of missing at least an hour of church every spring? Apparently so. But then again, I did note even back then that the families who forgot to put their clocks ahead an hour in the spring most often also forgot to pull them back an hour in the fall, thus arriving an hour early for church. These families were always of the mien that stayed at church the extra hour, rather than drive home and come back again. So maybe the benefit of one less hour of church in the spring is offset by one more hour of church in the fall.

I have to admit I enjoy Daylight Saving Time. I love the extra daylight in the evening, if only because I get up so darned early to go to work. I like that, when I get home at 7 pm, I still have a few hours of daylight ahead of me. All winter long I go through the cycle of going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, only getting sunlight through the dirty window in my cubicle or on furtive trips to the restroom in the building next door.

I remember reveling as a kid that, mid-sumer, the sun was still trying to shoot rays over the horizon even as late as 10 pm. There was NO USE of calling us in, because we always pled, "We can still see sunshine! You said we didn't have to come in until after dark!" Oh, the joys of staying up as late as 10 pm, playing hide and go seek, building cities for our teddy bears, and other such stuff.

Now I enjoy late-night gardening, but especially late-night puttering when nothing really important has to happen but I have that much more daylight in which to do it.