On the Dark Side

Daylight Savings time is here again. I don't like it. I understand the purpose for it. People want more daylight in the mornings. It is safer (more visibility) for the kids when they are waiting for the school bus to come and pick them up.

For me, it means less time to enjoy the day. When I used to work at the factory, I would check-out at 3:30 p.m. By the time I got dropped off, it was after 4 (on a good day). I would have to hurry and get the kids from my mom's. (I still drove then, but I didn't drive in the dark. I am night-blind. I can see a little bit, but not like I used to. It takes me about a minute to adjust to the dark and I don't see as clearly as I used to. It was too dark in the morning for me to drive, so I rode along with a co-worker.) It would be getting dusk when I got home, especially in December and January. It was a 10 minute drive across town to my mom's. I prayed every time I started the car so I would have a safe trip both ways. I would get frustrated when I got stuck by a train. I wanted to get home.

But now that I am going to school, I get to see the daylight hours more. I am not in some windowless area of the factory. But still, I get depressed when it gets dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. I am a prisoner in my house. I would rather have an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon than in the morning. I know that we only get about 9 hours of daylight in the wintertime no matter what.

How about a happy medium? How about turning the clocks back a half hour and then leave it alone. No more changes. No more "fall back" one hour in autumn or "spring forward" one hour in the spring. No more adjusting the body clock. How does that sound?