Daylight Savings Time
Posted: Tuesday, November 08, 2011
by Dianne Lehmann
Artisan Jewelry from SyZyGy
Article ST Daylight Savings Time
Can you really save daylight? I don't think so. I have to wonder why they decided to call it that all those many years ago. "Get Up Earlier Than You Used To Time," maybe, or "6:00 a.m. Is The New 5:00 a.m. Time?" You can't save daylight any more than you can bank sleep.
I have issues with daylight savings time, but they are old issues. In Arizona where I have lived for that past 18 plus years, we do not observe daylight savings time. Except for the Navajo Nation, which for unknown reasons of their own does. It has been a great blessing to me.
Right around my sixteenth birthday, I had to have all four of my wisdom teeth surgically removed. They were still impacted and could not be allowed to develop any further as they were growing beneath my last molars (I have a very small jaw despite my Dudley Do Right chin). I was not looking forward to the experience.
The oral surgeon decided to extract both teeth on one side the week before my birthday and the other the week after. I had to be unconscious during the procedure. When I lost consciousness, I was in a chair facing almost due west. When I woke up, I was in a different chair facing almost due south. But I didn't know that at the moment I awakened.
I woke up moaning interspersed with yelling as much as the wads of cotton in my mouth would allow. The nurse came in and asked me to be quiet because I was alarming the other patients. Then she asked me how bad the pain was. Obviously it must be pretty bad if I was making that much noise. But my mouth didn't hurt. It never really hurt all that much and I never used the pain medication the doctor prescribed. The problem was that I was totally disoriented. I didn't know where I was or what direction I was facing.
Finally, my younger sister and mom came into the room and hustled me out of the building through a back door. I could barely stand, but as soon as I was outside, I took a deep breath, got my bearings and felt so much better. Mom and Sis plopped me into the back seat of the car, where I fell over on my side and promptly fell asleep. I learned two things that day: (1) You can move me while I am sleeping normally and (2) You cannot move me while I am drugged unconscious.
I warned the doctor and his staff about this when they removed the next upper and lower wisdom teeth, but they moved me anyway. Why don't doctors listen? I do not like waking up screaming and I loudly let them know. At least he did listen and put the sutures in better than the first time. I told him he would have to do a better job because the first set would not let me open my mouth far enough to eat without a great deal of discomfort. I've always been a problem for doctors.
I don't react very well to changing the time all around either. I am accustomed to the sun's travels across the sky. My body knows what "time" it is. When the amount of light is suddenly off by an hour, I get totally messed up. It used to take me close to a month to get over the bad effects of "springing ahead" or "falling back." The amount of daylight naturally waxes and wanes throughout the year in a gradual progression and that is the way I like it.
When we still lived in southern California, I wished they would just chuck the whole daylight savings thing. I would have to use my alarm clock in order to wake up at the right time and I hate alarm clocks. That's just not a pleasant way to awaken even if you have it set to play music. I prefer to wake up naturally.
So you can imagine my joy upon learning that Arizona does not change time twice a year. If we ever move from Arizona, the state we move to will also have to eschew daylight savings time. End of discussion.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)I agree, it is time to do away with changing the clocks. Though, it is cool when working nights and you Spring forward, but not cool when you Fall back!
Great article, Dianne.Hi Ken.
I've worked nights ... well sort of ... shift started at four in the afternoon and ended at one in the morning. Didn't really like it all that much. Can't imagine that a time change would make it any better. :)
Oh! Thanks for joining my fan club. I really appreciate it.
Hugs,
Dianne
When the clocks have to be changed, I get jet lag for at least a week. This happens twice a year and although I look forward to DST in the Spring, I welcome it with equal dread.
What an ordeal with the teeth! I just had two wisdom teeth removed and had two bloody pieces of gauze hanging out of my mouth one on each side. I looked like a walrus. I had to be awake during the ordeal (novacaine) while they scraped the bone, half an hour on each side. When the procedure was over, my lip felt like it was hanging down to my belt and my speech was littered with "b's. Bar be bun bet (are we done yet)?
I think you need to stay in Arizona Dianne.Hi William.
Yes. I definitely need to stay in Arizona.
I'm sorry, but I laughed when I read about your wisdom teeth extraction. I think I prefer being knocked out. :)
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Hugs,
DianneThat's all right if you laugh Diane. You know what I'm talking about as you've been there in the reclining oral surgeon's chair of torture, the one with the uncomfortable head rest and bright adjustable lamp. On the extraction, the OS had his foot in my mouth to leverage the extraction. A very unpleasant experience.
Glad to comment on such a well written and thoughtful article.
I've never experienced daylight savings - it's always confused me, so I love the names you give it - I finally understand! I'm glad we don't have it here, I don't think I'd adapt well to it at all.
I love your stories of you as a child, I think you were delightful. Ow, though!Hi Jennifer.
I believe that most people just put up with it as an evil necessity. :)
I'm not so sure my mother would have agreed with you. :) I think I was a trial to her. I can remember trying a magician's trick of pulling a table cloth from beneath the settings, only all I had to work with was a doily underneath a ceramic lamp. Than ended badly. Then there was the time I made a huge design on the living room parquet flooring with poker chips and Mom rushed to answer the front door bell and slipped and landed really hard on her backside. I was always pushing limits and asking awkward questions. I talked to everything, animate and inanimate, which prompted many notes from teachers warning my parents that something was wrong with me and they might want to seek counseling for me. I had a good memory for anything I heard and repeated much of it at very awkward times. Nothing much has changed. :)
Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs,
DianneEven more delightful! I laughed at the doily / ceramic lamp! I don't care what you say, your mother was lucky to have such an alive, imaginative child :)
I didn't know Arizona does not change the time. It's something I hate like anything here in Connecticut. So what time is it in Arizona? Are you sometimes California time and other times mid-USA? I always look at our changing times as ahead one hour, then back and it corrects itself after a year. Enjoyed this article a lot. In fact, enjoy your introspective views. I'm willing to bet though that you are way too hard on yourself. You were a great kid, full of goodness and wit.Hi Heidi.
No. California is sometimes on Arizona time. :) After all we do not change our time and California does. :) During Daylight Savings Time, California leaps an hour ahead and "catches" up to Arizona. Also, during DST, we in Arizona are three hours behind the East Coast. The rest of the year, it is only a two hour difference. Where I live is considered either Mountain Standard Time or Central Standard Time. Our evening television "prime time" begins at 7:00 p.m. instead of 8:00 p.m. and I really like that. Means we can get to bed earlier. :) We do record a lot of stuff though.
Not changing time can be a bit odd though. Around the summer solstice, it will start getting light about 4:30 a.m. The birds start singing and wake me up. Also, it will stay light enough to take a walk until about 8:00 p.m.
I really do think they should do away with DST. In the past when the nation was primarily a farming nation, it made sense, but not so much today.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs,
DianneInteresting info. Here, since our latest time change, we're getting dark again ar 4:45 and it's pitch black by 5. Don't like it.Sunset here is about 5:30, but that's mostly because we are further south than you. But by 4:00 I can tell the sun is going down and it starts to get pretty darn chilly. Our high today is 59 and I'm luxuriating in the warmth. Last week on Monday it snowed. Brrrr!Well, this is too bizarro. We also had 59 yesterday and today 56. It's raining today. Supposed to get colder tomorrow and colder yet on Sunday.But we're CT. You're supposed to stay hot - but I know, I stand corrected. Arizona has different weather conditions in different parts of the state. It is really an interesting state, and we've already been through my love for Flagstaff.
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