Daylight Losing Time

It's 6:30 on the first day of our new clock time and none of the family is awake to see the sunrise.  It is the second day of my birthmonth and only the elderly gathering at McDonald's will see the dawn.

We spent a week every summer in Rhode Island or on the far end of Long Island at our grandparents' houses.  Dawn was always surprisingly early and darkness fell long before I was ready to go inside.  It's only a 20 minute difference from Pittsburgh but it seemed like more.

And if we head out toward Chicago, it'll be more than six hours of driving before we hit the end of this time zone.  Sunrise at the home of the Brickyard 500 is 25 minutes later than in Pittsburgh.

Since the sun does not respond in any way to the changing of our clocks, the number of minutes between sunrise and sunset at a particular latitude is constant for a given day.  We can do anything we want with our clocks.

I never had enough time to play in the snow after school.  I wanted to take long training runs in the cold but I had to start early to get them in before I got hit by a car.  And any fall-winter-spring pedal time has to be put in before my daily nap or there won't be enough light for it.  I like our summer clock settings.

Now my three children are suffering.  Not only is it getting colder outside, but there are shorter hours of daylight.  Our children will see one fewer minute of after-school daylight every day for the next months and good parents want to have their kids in before dark.

We have electricity in our homes and good headlights on our cars.  We know that the energy difference is minimal.  Perhaps it is just a tradition passed down to us from our forefathers.  Perhaps there is some good explanation for it that I just can't wrap my mind around.  Whatever the reason, I'm sick of Daylight Losing Time.  Save the daylight for after school hours so we can get our kids out to play.