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This has nothing to do with HD finances, but much to do with HD living.
Every six months or so we see newspaper or online articles questioning the value of Daylight Saving Time (DST). Some argue that it should never be implemented, while others say it should be permanent, with no changes. Others like it the way it is.
Before I retired, DST really had a minimal impact on me. Except for a short stint on a construction site, my career positioned me in an office fulltime. I had to transition my sleeping habits a bit, and that’s really it. I modified my daytime activities such as exercise, yardwork, or consideration for sleeping neighbors, but that was easy. Now that I’m retired, I don’t really care about DST at all, as I can pick my time for important activities whenever I wish. Before retirement, I got up each morning at 6 AM for 40+ years. I’ve been retired for 4 years. I still wake up early, and that’s OK with me. I enjoy the early morning solitude. I try to be quiet for the benefit of my still-sleeping wife.
There is one member of our family that has great difficulty with DST. Liza, our dog, is currently waking an hour early (based on the human clock). This impacts me, as I am the main provider of early morning services such as walks, food & water, and medication. I realize it’s been barely a week since we went off DST, but she is stubbornly hanging on to “her” habits of when to go out and when to be fed.
This lack of transition especially impacted me this morning, as I was sleeping very soundly when she barked with insistence about an hour earlier than I wished. This caused a change from my normal early-morning sunny disposition to what is best described as grumpy. And now, as I type this, she’s asleep nearby, basking in the sun pouring through the window. Liza sleeps what seems to be 22 hours each day, so DST really shouldn’t impact her at all.
Sooner or later she will transition to our human schedule, only to be upset again in the spring.
The science says it is better for our bodies and minds to remain on standard time year-round. This daylight savings time is ruining our health.
B – do you have a reference for that? I’d love to read it.
I’m also happy to report that my dog slept until 7 this morning. I was awake before she was.
I doubt the problem is DST itself, given the size of the time zones. Isn’t the problem the transition? In which case remaining on DST would do away with the transition and make people like me happier. Jeff’s dog is apparently doing OK on DST.
By way of illustration here‘s a map of the North American time zones. Half the population of the US is in the Eastern zone, which you will see stretches from far northern Canada to the tip of the Yucatan peninsula and from the Atlantic coast nearly to Chicago.
The DST transition has an impact on our youngest grandsons – 2 & 4. They also wake up early, and the 4-year old seems exhausted at the end of his pre-K day. Like Liza, they will transition to EST.
I understand our 3-year-old grandson is now an early riser, too. 🙂
Lol Jeff….. We have a cat
Dan and Chris – we are now cat-less. Will probably stay that way. Our previous dog and previous cat got along quite well – at times sharing a bed, and then that dog died and shortly thereafter we rescued Liza. Liza was very friendly but too rough with Emma the cat. When Emma died, we decided to maintain the single pet status.
lol! Cat here too. Chris
DST probably affects people differently depending on where in a given time zone they live. It also affects people differently depending on whether they are morning or night people. I’m a night owl, and I much prefer DST. Doesn’t help that I am wary of driving after dark these days.
Kathy – Thanks for that input. I have lived in Raleigh so long that I never remember that location within a time zone also has an impact on DST perception. I don’t think that would make any difference to my dog! 🙂