Do we need Daylight Saving Time?

Benjamin Franklin suggested Daylight Saving Time (DST)  a round about way in his essay, "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light," first published in the Journal de Paris in April 1784.  This humorous treatise from an ailing Franklin soon to return home to his new America from Paris for the last time gives us simple observations and exact calculations on how Parisans could save over 64 million pounds of wax and tallow each year to equate to a broad estimate of $960,000,000 if they utlized morning sunlight. 

But it would seem the suggestion of the 18th century was based on the fact that Parisians would not wake until nearly Noon.  With half the day's light gone, Franklin suggested extending the "waking hours of light." 

Once war and production schedules of the 20th Century needed more light at the end of a winter day, Western Civilization did indeed make the sun stay up later.  Now our clocks know what day to fall back or spring foward and do so without being told.

Do we still need DST?  Do we really save energy and money?  According to The California Energy Commission, we don't all save energy equally.  With some states using more energy in winter to stay warm than in summer to stay cool, Daylight Saving Time is actually Daylight Wasting Energy.  DST does not save me any money.  I burn the same bulbs, use the same appliances and have the same routine no matter what the sun is doing.  I would add that I probably have more clothes to wash from a dirty kid playing outside thanks to DST.  

Whether we save energy and money seems to no longer be the question in maintaining DST. It is now a matter of culture and lifestyle.  People like DST because after getting home from work, they still have daylight left.  But, some get home, close the shades to better see their HD TV.
Matters not to me as long as I get that sweet hour of sleep back on November 1st that I lost in March. 

Learning to Appreciate

So many things in my daily life I take for granted and I don’t even wonder how they got there: people, conveniences and dust-bunnies. One of the most significant conveniences in our lives and the history of mankind is electricity. There is so much we cannot do without electricity and life would be a great hardship without it.

Rarely do we take note of electricity until it goes out in a storm or brown-out. Worse yet, as if from the deep blue ether of the cosmos, a flicker of the precious juice comes, snuffs out a file not yet saved, sends a bit too much to a power supply and overwhelms the machine that runs our lives or resets all of our digital clocks to 12:00am! Our world is turned upside down for what seems like eons or at least invaluable minutes of time. The computer is down; the server is down; we are down!

When at work, being “down” means idleness, unproductive time, isolation and worse, time to file the stacks on my desk. But then there are people out of their offices, talking in the hall, taking time to communicate face-to-face instead of by email. How wonderful! How novel! What is this new approach to social media?

At home, the TV is off, laptops may operate for a short while, and if it is past sundown, how to I find the flashlight or candles in the dark? I can’t get any chores completed and dinner will be cold, unless my husband remembered to get the gas tank on the grill refilled. Then with the darkness, some quiet comes. I can hear my cats purring across the room.

Even a minor blip in electricity delivery can be very inconvenient, but I’ve learned to appreciate the break. I see people’s faces, get some filing done and realize what I take for granted.

Anyone got a deck of cards in case the electricity goes out?