Question Of The Day, Wednesday, January ,10 2018

[Mamanyt1953]

Simple one this week...it's coming up, not too long from now.

Are you a Daylight Savings Time person, or do you prefer "Real" Time? Or are you some sort of odd masochist who actually LIKES switching back and forth and spending several days a year in a drooling daze?

Me, I like real time. I much prefer the night time to day time, and real time gives me more night. And, it gets the 2,437 howling hooligans that live in our complex off of their bicycles and into bed, or at least parked inside watching the television and driving their parents nuts, earlier.

LOL, that sounds horrible, I know, but there is a pack of them, and they do make a LOT of noise, and during DST it seems to go on forever!

 

[Willowy]

I prefer DST, because I am NOT a morning person and would rather have it stay light later so I can do stuff outside, instead of have the sun come up at 4 in the morning.

And although I hate the several days of temporal flux we all go through whenever the time changes, I don't see a way around it in Northern areas :/. It's either that or choosing between 4:30 am sunrises or 3:30 pm sunsets.

 

[jcat]

I hate the switch twice a year. As far north as we live, DST is a waste of time. Who needs it to stay light out till 10 p.m.?

 

[kashmir64]

I have no idea. We don't switch time, time switches around us.

 

[Kat0121]

I hate the switch twice a year. As far north as we live, DST is a waste of time. Who needs it to stay light out till 10 p.m.?

 

[neely]

I like it to be light by 6:30 a.m. and not get dark until 8:30 p.m. Would that be considered DST or Real Time?

 

[betsygee]

I hate the switch twice a year. As far north as we live, DST is a waste of time. Who needs it to stay light out till 10 p.m.?

I hate changing the clocks. I still haven't changed the clock in my car after the last time switch.

 

[Kieka]

Are we that close already? The biggest problem with daylight savings for me is that the cats don't understand it. The first few weeks after the change they are very confused with meals and my schedule suddenly being off in one direction or the other. It's bad enough on days like today where I get the "what the heck" look from Link when I have to start work early. But trying to get them to come inside at a different time is a nightmare. Just when I get them to the point that they bring themselves in on time without prompting it seems to change.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

or 3:30 pm sunsets.

Actually, I LOVE those! As I said, unlike most of the world, I'm a night person.

 

[rubysmama]

Who needs it to stay light out till 10 p.m.?

Me. Ok, I don't need it to, but I love it when it does. Those few weeks in June/early July are my favourite weeks of the whole year. And I'm already loving noticing the longer days now that we're into January. The later I have to close the curtains and turn on the lights the better.
So, to answer the question, yes, I am a Daylight Savings Time person. And only 60 more days to go.

 

[raysmyheart]

I love it to stay light out until about 8 or 9pm which is what I think it does here the NEastern United States in the summer. Would I like it to stay light until 10pm? Absolutely, if it were summer. Winter, 8 pm. I enjoy during the summer for it to get light between 5-6am.

However, I am finding myself utterly confused by the whole topic. I hope I'm not the only one. I'm also confusing myself because I am a night person, I function better every day after 5 pm until about 2 am (if I didn't force myself to go to bed, haha). Does this make any sense? If light patterns changed drastically, I think I would be really thrown off balance. I think about how all of nature relies upon the Sun and how we take our cues from it. Also, how some function best in the morning and some at night.. Has anyone ever been awake in the summer right before it gets light and it will start with one chirp, then another, and another until it is a complete orchestra of birds! Amazing!

 

[ileen]

It depends how far north you are, and even where you're situated in your time zone, for the time of sunrise/sunset changing as much as it does. I think it's possible those on the equator have the same sunrise/sunset time year round unless they switch the clocks.

I hate when it's dark when i have to get up, so those couple of weeks before we change clocks in the autumn are awful. However, I also hate when it's dark when I leave work on time, so late Nov to late Jan aren't great either. I love summer evenings when it stays light past 9pm.

 

[Willowy]

I think it's possible those on the equator have the same sunrise/sunset time year round unless they switch the clocks.

Yes. On the equator days and nights are equal. Equatorial countries don't change their clocks. Time is usually set for sunrise at 6 am and sunset at 6 pm.

In China, the entire country is on one time zone. China is a really big country. This means that the sun comes up at 5 am on one side of the country and 10 am on the other side. They adjust their schedules to fit the sunlight, so businesses in the earlier area might open at 6 am and businesses in the other area might open at 11 am. But in the US we prefer to be able to expect businesses to always open at 8 or 9, not adjusted for sunlight.

I love it when it's light until 10 pm. It gives me a lot of time after work to mow or garden or scrub litterboxes outside. I also hate going to work in the dark in the winter. And so the time has to change. I suppose if I didn't have to work it wouldn't really matter.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

OK...my guilty secret. I really, really miss Alaska, both for the phenominally long nights in mid-winter and equally phenominally long days in mid-summer.

 

[raysmyheart]

Where I am in the NEastern United States, it never stays light until 10 pm. I never knew it did anywhere. Is this true? I can't even imagine it.

 

[Willowy]

Where I am in the NEastern United States, it never stays light until 10 pm. I never knew it did anywhere. Is this true? I can't even imagine it.

Yes. According to the sunset clock I found, sunset on the summer solstice is at 9:12 pm here. And if it's nice and clear the sunset can last a while; it's not too unusual to still see some scraps of light peeking over the horizon after 11. Of course, if you go farther North you can get to a place where the sun doesn't go down at all during the summer, but who wants to live there?

We once got stuck on the Anchorage military base when our plane broke down on the way back to Japan. We went to Burger King and played at the playground. None of us had a watch on. We noticed that Burger King was closing, and went over to read their sign to see when they closed. It was 11 pm. It was full daylight! We had no idea it was so late. It must be hard to regulate your circadian rhythm when you live somewhere like that. Like the Northern Exposure episodes about everybody going crazy in the summer, lol.

 

[raysmyheart]

W Willowy , thank you for the information! This question has been eye-opening to me. One thing about where I live is that it seems you cannot really look far into the distance for the sunsets, at least immediately where I am because of the hills and trees. It must be nice to view the sunset over flat territory, it would be new to me. Our sunsets always disappear behind the trees. One exception is that I can visit the ocean to see the sunset there. Beautiful!

 

[kashmir64]

Where I am in the NEastern United States, it never stays light until 10 pm. I never knew it did anywhere. Is this true? I can't even imagine it.

It gets dark around 8pm in the summer. But we don't have DST.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

i'd much prefer 'Real' time. it doesn't matter much to me when sunrise or sunset is, because i plan the chores i need to do during the daylight hours based on when those hours are at various times of the year.

it just seems like a big 'to do', changing the clocks, (most people) getting used to the time changes, and etc twice each year....for no really good reason, that we couldn't simply adjust to/get used to 'Real' time. maybe just people making things more complicated than they need to be...?

 

[di and bob]

I'm retired, so I don't care. My 'natural' clock seems to be geared more towards DST, although I go to bed when it is still light out since it is at 9:00 in the summer. But I still get up at 4 AM every day, I need those quiet dark hours to get right with the world, and in the summer it is a great time to set sprinklers and water before it is light. (although it doesn't do my heart any good when those joggers sneak up behind me with their loud "GOOD MORNINGS!") I can't stand the heat so I am in the yard and garden working from 6-7 until 11:00 or so. Once I start sweating I seek the indoors, no matter what time it is. Retirement is wonderful!