Spring ahead, fall back

I'm a four season kind of gal, and one of the things I miss is that those four seasons don't seem to be as distinct as once they were. As we're closing out our second Winter in a row with no appreciable snow fal, I'm looking at you, Winter.

Maybe because I don't have to go anywhere during a blizzard, I welcome a good old-fashioned doozy of a storm. I like looking out at snow falling. I like following the breathless reports on the news. And not that I enjoy seeing someone's oceanfront house get washed out to sea, but I don't mind watching it.

Oh, I don't like the icy steps and sidewalks, but they're fleeting.

So, gimme Winter!

I don't even mind the cold. In fact, I actively like bundling up, putting on a parka over a heavy wool sweater and turtleneck, and taking myself on a trudge.

The one thing I do not like in the least about winter is how dark it gets in the evening. 

Dark by 4:30-ish? Ugh!

I just want to be inside with the lights on.

It's no accident that those in Northern climes have holidays around the darkest days of the year, when we need a distraction. By the time late January and early February roll around, I'm loving every moment of extra light in the evening. At 5 p.m., I look out and there's still enough light out to take a little spin around the block.

Summer is not my favorite season. I don't enjoy the heat and humidity. But I like the baseball, and I love the light. 

So I am of course delighted that we're back on Daylight Savings Time (DST).

I know it's controversial, and we're pretty much a divided country on whether we should make it permanent or get rid of it entirely, but I'm a super fan.

It'll be a bit on the dark side when I head to my volunteer work - I start at 7 a.m. - but I'll take that bad with the good, good, goodies of more light later in the day.

Those who despise DST seem to fall into a couple of camps. There are some who get thrown for such a loop by losing or gaining an hour twice a year that it takes them six months to get their body clocks back in order. My question to these folks is: how do you travel from one time zone to another if you can't handle an hour time change?

Others complain that babies and little kids fall off their schedules. Not having had kids, I don't know whether this is a real thing or not, but I don't remember anyone bugging out in grammar school. All I remember is an occasional classmate showing up an hour early or an hour late because their parents forgot to set their clocks ahead or back. 

Yes, I know there's supposedly some scientific evidence about car crashes, heart attacks, kids hit by cars at dark bus stops, etc. If this is caused by the biennial hour back and forth, then lets make the change to DST permanent. If it's brought on by having less light in the morning and more at the end of the day, I want someone to explain to me how this works across an entire time zone.

I'm at one end of the Eastern time zone, but by the time you get to the far reaches, at the Illinois border, things are a lot different. They already have less light in the morning - kids at dark bus stops - and more light at the end of the day - evening walks, tossing a ball in the backyard. Do they have more heart attacks and car accidents because they have less light in the morning? How can we get it to work out optimally for everyone. (I believe the answer is, we can't.)

Then there are the folks who live further to the North and further to the South. Northerners get more dark, while those in the South get more light. (Lucky them.)

I may not be making perfect scientific sense here, but, forget about changing the clocks twice a year, there's no one perfect scenario when it comes to who gets dark and who gets light, and when they get dark and when they get light. 

Somehow, people have lived for millenia in the Land of the Midnight Sun and the Land of the Midday Dark and yet they manage to adapt and survive, even if they need to bring out the Vitamin D sun lamps in the winter and blackout curtains and eyemasks in the summer.

All I know is that I'm thrilled that we just had Spring Ahead Weekend, and it's now light later. Yay!

There's talk - there's always talk - about making DST permanent or killing it. If they kill it, I'm pretty sure that there'll be a movement in New England to join the Atlantic Time Zone - the next time zone over, which will give us mo' better light at the end of the day permanently. Sign me up.

Meanwhile, I got a nice evening walk in last night, and will get another one in today.

Yay, Daylight Savings Time!