Time

I was thinking about time today. Driving home from work, with the sun still up, I thought about the end of Daylight Savings Time--which now comes a week or two later than it used to. It just doesn't seem right that it doesn't get dark on Halloween until around 7 p.m., well after trick-or-treaters are out and about.

The change in when Daylight Savings Time starts and stops--a change that was enacted into law a few years ago--was supposed to help save energy. How? It seems to me that unless you're one of the three people in the US who goes to sleep at 7 p.m. and wakes at 7 a.m., you're using energy, and whether you use it in the morning before the sun comes up, or at night after the sun goes down doesn't really matter, does it? After all, the number of hours of sunlight in a day doesn't depend on what the hands on a clock say. Did someone really think this through? I don't like it.

And February. What's the thinking behind 28 days? Why not borrow a day from January's 31 days and another day from March's 31 days and give them to February, so all three months have 30 days (except in leap year, when February would have 31 days). There'd still be the same number of days in a year; they'd just be distributed a little better. Who came up with that calendar?

When I grow up, I want to be the person who decides time. You know what I'd do? I'd give January, February, and March 30 days each and do away with Daylight Savings Time altogether. Instead, I'd make hours 65 minutes long on Saturdays and Sundays, and 55 minutes long on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Then, just to even out the number of minutes between weekends and weekdays, I'd declare all leftover minutes "happy hour"--kind of neutral territory, you know? Good plan, huh? Vote for me!