OT: In the interest of full disclosure...

[Eric Iverson]

I want it on PUBLIC RECORD that:

 

My name is Eric Iverson, and I approve this message.

[whitefang]

Did anyone QUESTION that? Or are you, like me and probably 90% of America, OD-ing on the pre-election day campaign message glut?

Whitefang

[Eric Iverson]

You mean you're TIRED of hearing all that self-serving BS maximus??

 

Endless celebrity scandals, etc.

 

At least HERE on the GP forum, most of the posters are at least rational, most of the time ..... Sometimes people even know what they are talking about - WHAT A CONCEPT!

[whitefang]

Just trying to nail down the point and reason for your entry.

Whitefang

[Eric Iverson]

OK, cool.

[Larryz]

I'll be glad when November 9th comes around...Don't forget to set your clocks back this weekend. Moving the clocks back is more irritating to me than those endless commercials, for which I can just hit the mute button!

[Scott Fraser]

I personally am very grateful that I will be in Vilnius, Lithuania on Election Day. I'm done, voted already, don't need to keep hearing about it.

[whitefang]

Know what you mean Scott. Due to health and physical conditions the wife and I did absentee ballots this time.

 

@Larry: CRIPES! Seems like I just changed them FOREWARD only a few weeks ago. Got SEVEN of them to fool with 'round here. AIEE!

 

I usually laughingly recall my ex's grandma, who was in her 80's when this all started, calling my father in law all worried asking if she HAD to wake up at 2 AM to reset all her clocks!

 

There was also the guy at where I worked who always came in late the Monday after each of those weekends claiming, "I forgot to reset my clocks." It took a few YEARS for the boss to realize that if that WAS the case, there were times the guy should have come in EARLY!

Whitefang

[Larryz]

Yeah, I wish we could all just compromise 1/2 hour each way and then leave the clocks alone...and like Arizona and Hawaii, we could refuse to play this crazy game LOL!

[desertbluesman]

I'll be glad when November 9th comes around...Don't forget to set your clocks back this weekend. Moving the clocks back is more irritating to me than those endless commercials, for which I can just hit the mute button!

 

We here in Arizona never change the clocks. It is just everyone around us that does such a thing. I saw a little quip on Facebook from a old Native American quote regarding Daylight Savings Time (supposedly)

 

"It takes a Government to cut one end off of a blanket, sew it on the other end, and believe somehow that the blanket is longer"

 

Now that made me laugh......

[Larryz]

+1 DBM, Native Americans (i.e. Indians) are much smarter than most of the people in our Government when it comes to nature, mother earth, father sun, the 4 grandfathers, the creator and his son. They know that when each winter comes, it's the start of a new year. They track the years as they go by, by the number of winters. They track the months that go by, by the number of full moons. They track the days that go by, by the number of sun rises. It's not rocket science LOL! It's hard to believe that man thinks he can control mother nature, when they can't even set their own clocks LOL!

[whitefang]

Back when, some saw DST as a way to increase agricultural productivity. As farmers generally started their day in the dark ordinarily, they had the tedency to knock of when it started to get dark at the other end of the day, so DST was thought to prolong the work day for them at this time of year. Nowadays, I don't think it makes much difference to farmers. But there ARE others who think it decreases energy use somehow.

 

It's been going on so long I no longer remember WHICH period is the NORMAL one!

Whitefang

[Eric Iverson]

DST has no effect on the actual cycle of day and night, only in how we COUNT it and what we CALL it.

Sort of like lots of other things, LOL.

[Scott Fraser]

Daylight savings is merely a way to shift our activities to more closely match the cycle of the sun through the seasons.

[whitefang]

That's up to US, Scott. I really don't think THAT'S what anybody had in mind when it was adopted. In fact, after all this time, I have no idea WHAT they were thinking.

Whitefang

[hurricane hugo]

I personally am very grateful that I will be in Vilnius, Lithuania on Election Day.

 

what's going on there?

[Scott Fraser]

That's up to US, Scott.

 

It is up to us if we're self employed, not at all for the time clock puncher.

 

I really don't think THAT'S what anybody had in mind when it was adopted. In fact, after all this time, I have no idea WHAT they were thinking.

Whitefang

 

I think that's entirely what it is: i.e. less wasted daylight hours before the start of the standard working day during long days.

[Scott Fraser]

I personally am very grateful that I will be in Vilnius, Lithuania on Election Day.

 

what's going on there?

 

I'm out on tour with Kronos Quartet, my day job.

[Larryz]

That's up to US, Scott.

 

It is up to us if we're self employed, not at all for the time clock puncher.

 

I really don't think THAT'S what anybody had in mind when it was adopted. In fact, after all this time, I have no idea WHAT they were thinking.

Whitefang

 

I think that's entirely what it is: i.e. less wasted daylight hours before the start of the standard working day during long days.

 

There were 3 basic historical issues that come to my mind:

 

1. Was as Fang mentioned, that the farmers having more or less daylight hours for getting their crops taken care of was a consideration.

 

2. Was the danger of having little children standing in the dark waiting for the school bus.

 

3. Some cities could save a ton of electricity (except for Vegas and Reno) by just turning the street lights off earlier and/or later depending on falling back and springing forward.

 

There are probably a ton of things to consider but +1 people who have to punch a clock have to deal with it more than the old retirees LOL! Imagine if we could leave our clocks alone, all of the transportation services would have a better way of scheduling and keeping the Trains, Planes and Automobiles on time (I can see having 3 time zones)...basically I think we split the difference and leave the clocks alone and let the earth, sun and moon do their thing...

[whitefang]

I'm thinking that the "spring forward" period is the DST period, and when we "fall back" is when we GO BACK to the "normal" time, as it seems it gets dark earlier now(by the CLOCK, anyway). I mostly remember when it all started, my kid sister was still little enough to have an early bedtime. And my Mother(Nazi-like in her enforcement of it) griping how much more DIFFICULT it was getting her to agree to go to bed by her using the argument, "But it's STILL LIGHT outside!" And I seem to recall she had that problem with my sister during the SUMMER months.

Whitefang

[duff beer]

1. Was as Fang mentioned, that the farmers having more or less daylight hours for getting their crops taken care of was a consideration.

Changing the clocks doesn't change how many hours of daylight that exist...

[Larryz]

1. Was as Fang mentioned, that the farmers having more or less daylight hours for getting their crops taken care of was a consideration.

Changing the clocks doesn't change how many hours of daylight that exist...

 

+1,000 That's my point and it's why changing the clocks makes absolutely no sense at all IMHO. I really don't care what time it is when the farmer starts his tractor as long his farm is a few miles away from my house LOL! The daylight hours will continue to get shorter until December 21st no matter how we set our clocks...so we just need to pick a time and stick with it!

[Winston Psmith]

1. Was as Fang mentioned, that the farmers having more or less daylight hours for getting their crops taken care of was a consideration.

Changing the clocks doesn't change how many hours of daylight that exist...

 

+1,000 That's my point and it's why changing the clocks makes absolutely no sense at all IMHO. I really don't care what time it is when the farmer starts his tractor as long his farm is a few miles away from my house LOL! The daylight hours will continue to get shorter until December 21st no matter how we set our clocks...so we just need to pick a time and stick with it!

 

I've worked as a landscaper for years, and I have encountered otherwise intelligent people who seemed to believe there was an extra hour of daylight in the Spring, when we turn the clocks forward. SMH . . .

[d halfnote]

FWIW, my fave album ending goes: "In the interest of disc closure"

 

[whitefang]

Yeah, there's different ways to look at it. For instance, when it all started, I was working for GM. My workday started at 6:00am(which meant I got up each morning a 4:30 am) and ended at 3:00am, so how much DAYLIGHT there was and WHEN it started or ended was no real concern for me. Except the time when I worked in the pinstriping dept. and we had a stetch when we worked 12 hour shifts. I'd go in when it was dark outside, and get off when it was dark also, I wouldn't see daylight unless I wandered outside during a break.

 

That 12-hour shift period was during the winter months, so DST didn't play any role for me then.

 

And now that I'm retired, it doesn't make ANY difference to me!

Whitefang

[Winston Psmith]

@Whitefang; sounds almost like shift I used to work, only in reverse.

 

I worked the night shift in an industrial darkroom, in a huge commercial photo processing center. In the Winter, I'd be heading into work when it was dark, and coming out of work before the sun came up. For a few months, I lived like one of the Mole People, never seeing daylight, and hardly ever seeing bright artificial light.

[whitefang]

Yeah, Winston( what do people call you for "short" anyway?), that shift was a grind. Was so constantly tired it got so where my kids were tucking ME into bed!

Whitefang

[Eric Iverson]

It's hard for most people to work graveyard shifts and get good quality of sleep during the day when the sun is out and people are out and about doing their business and MAKING NOISE.

I didn't find that out until I had that experience.

[whitefang]

For the last half year of high school I worked the midnight shift at an all-night diner. I'd finish my shift and then take off for school. Once I got home from school, I'd hit the rack with my alarm set for 10:00pm then wake up and get ready for work. Had NO trouble getting and staying asleep THAT way, but it DID cut deeply into my SOCIAL LIFE.

 

If I had done it the way(which at the time was not possible) that most midnight shift workers did, sleeping through the day and being up and about in the same evening hours the DAYSHIFT workers did, I'd still have that "Afternoon shift anxiety" of having to drop what I'm doing in order to go to work that I hated when I WAS on the afternoon shift.

Whitefang

[Winston Psmith]

Worked many night jobs, but that night job in a darkroom was the extreme.

 

One thing that was kind of fun about that job. We'd get off work and go to this place called Lum's, because nothing else was open. A motley crew at best, a bunch of us would go in and order breakfast, because that's all they served at that hour, with beer. We got some pretty funny looks from our waitresses, who must have been certain that we were drinking before going to work.