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Well, not in total darkness. Of course, you have a light on. But that's my point.
Yesterday morning, at this hour (by the clock), we didn't need to turn on the lights. Today we do.
Obviously, I'm talking about the dawning of daylight-saving time. It began today and so far I've saved no daylight. As a matter of fact, I've lost an hour's sleep!
I've always questioned the term "daylight-saving time." Sure, by the new clock setting -- spring ahead! -- we gain an hour of brightness in the evening. Yet what have we saved? We lost an hour of brightness in the morning! Do the math!
Back in the 1960s, when daylight-saving time was first instituted in Nebraska, it was agreed in the state legislature that by moving our clocks ahead one hour in the spring, our farmers would be able to work longer in the evening.
But don't farmers traditionally get up really early in the morning to start work? Now suddenly it's pitch dark when they get up. And to benefit from the displaced daylight, they have to work an hour later at night.
If it were not for daylight-saving time, they could knock off at 9 p.m., have their dinner, sip a couple of brews, and see what's happening on "Criminal Minds".
My Grandpa Potter would not have approved of daylight-saving time. I never knew him, but it was said that he was a cantankerous sort. And being a morning person, he expected his brood to be up and working by 4 a.m.
Now when evening came, Grandpa went to bed with the chickens. That's because Grandma made him sleep in the henhouse. I'm serious. Winter and summer, he turned in at 7 p.m.
Six months of daylight-saving time would have severely maladjusted his body clock. He would have grown more cantankerous than ever.
Thankfully, cantankerousness was not a trait that was passed on to his grandchildren. (And according to spell check, cantankerousness is not really a word.)
Now, I'll give the farmer his due. And I understand that moving that hour of daylight from morning to night benefits the evening golfer or fisherman or even the guy who has no other time to mow his lawn.
As for me, I was always a morning fisherman, my golf game could not be any worse if I played in the dark, and if I don't have time to mow, well a guy can always spray a little Round Up across the yard.
You also have to take God into consideration when you introduce something like daylight-saving time. The whole time concept was his thing to begin with. So who are we to mess around with it?
You don't read anywhere in the Bible where God tells Noah or Abraham or Moses, "Now on the second Sunday of every March, you guys have to get up at 2 in the morning and go out and move your sundials ahead one hour. You'll notice then on Sunday night that the sun will appear to set an hour later than usual. This will give you some extra daylight so you can slaughter a few more sheep and burn them on the altar for the Sunday Night Summer Sacrificial service. I think you're going to like it."
I have to admit I'm a morning person, especially in the spring and summer months. I like to get up early and have my coffee and listen to nature as it greets daybreak.
Well, that's a little difficult to do right now when day doesn't break until it's time to rush out the door to work. And since I don't go to bed especially early, I resent missing "Letterman" jsut because the sun is casting a glare on my television screen.
But I seem to be in the minority where daylight-saving time is concerned, so I'll have to keep making the best of it. And I guess I'd better start working on my next column since I'm already an hour behind and I haven't even begun slaughtering my sheep for tonight's sacrifice.
Copyright by Wendel Potter
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