END DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN 2009!
Better darn well believe I will continue pestering you about this very important policy matter.
Orrin, YOU have earned my vote. (see how easy it is, politicians?)
Come on Y'all! Write to your Senators, write to your Governors, write to all your Congressional Representatives - ONLY vote for those that respond.
Gov. Huntsman - What? You too busy to send your faithful constituents a note telling them you hear and obey?? Harrumph! See you at the voting booth, baby!
I can't do this alone, ladies and gentlemen! Get on your dang computers and write to your leaders. STOP this insanity once and for ALL!
Perhaps I need to HAND WRITE a few letters. They say that REALLY REALLY catches their attention.
7 Brilliant Bits of Inspiration:
Brandy two things...
umm, first, not to anger your blood but you know dearie that my letter would state the opposite....
and second, I'm not sure if you realize this, but your home address is listed for everyone to see. I just wanted to double check to make sure that you were aware of that for security reasons and all since Tammy recently had an identity theft.
Just looking out for my peeps,
Catherine
PS Happy earth day!
Baby Olivia - how come you're in favor of DST? Just wondering. I'm not vehement about it like Mrs. B. Roth, but I do feel indifferent about the pros.
Love, LOVE that you wrote to your congressman. Also, I know someone named Orrin Hatch - he's 3.
Your posts seem to be in better spirits. I hope the things you're doing for yourself are keeping you happy and peaceful.
And by congressman I, of course, meant Senator!! :P oops!
Thanks Baby O. Good catch. At least I didn't publish that my phone number is 801-555-1234, that my birthday is 13-32-78 or that my SSN is 123-45-6789. THAT would have been stoopid!
Though ... it's probably too late anyway. The crazies will be here any second now, beating down my door on Harleys.
m.a. - Baby O is just a DST trouble maker. I'm working on having that part of her brain removed via a flashing picture of David Hasslehoff.
(I guess it hasn't worked yet?)
Any.
Second.
Now.
I don't know if the hassle of handwriting a letter would be worth the benefits of getting it read more closely.
Does Word have some kind of handwriting font?
I live in Alaska and DST is POINTLESS up here - no one likes it. We have so much daylight in the summer anyway, it does nothing to switch it forward or back an hour - we still have only a few hours of night in the summer and we still only have a few hours of daylight in the winter. Makes NO SENSE up here. There was a bill to abolish it in Alaska, but our legislative session just ended and I don't think anything was done. I think some still wanted to keep it cause they thought it would throw things off to be 2 hours behind the west coast for part of the year instead of 1, but to that I say "look at Hawaii - they have no Daylight Savings Time and they are doing just fine thankyouverymuch".
Brandy you just crack me up!!!!
Well, why do I love DST, let me count the ways.....
Well I can just think of one....MORE SUNLIGHT!!!!
(and I'm sorry but while he doesn't say so I think LiteralDan will agree with me, because he hails from my neck of the woods, or at least I am assuming he does since he posted a picture of a Jewel grocery ad on his blog--that's right LiteralDan, I'm calling you out as a fellow Chicagoan!!! hey there! I'm a southsider now, but I was born and raised on the northside (Bucktown to be accurate!) How 'bout you? Isn't this warm say (oh, the like second one we've had all year), nice?
Anyway, I digress. Where I live, it is grey, oh, about 6 months out of the year. Endlessly grey. The sun never seems to rise in the winter, even though it is technically 'daylight.' This descends upon us in October and lifts sometime, oh in April or so.
And to make it worse, during the winter here, it gets dark at 4 freaking 30 in the afternoon!!!! This means that there is hardly any time to play outside at all after naptime, and my getting dark at 4.30, I mean that it is pitch dark by then....as in it starts getting dark by like 4ish....so there is really NO time to go outside at all. You turn on your lights pretty darn early.
I grew up here....when you get out of school at 3.15 (2.46 in high school) and then ride the bus or take the train home, it can take a long time, especially if you have a crappy Chicago Public Schools bus driver or you have to rely on the even crappier CTA since they don't even offer school transportation for high school kids---you are on your own!-- So then you get home and you have to immediately turn on the freaking lights, it kind of ruins your opportunities to do things like, say, play in the park, go to the library, see your friends, etc., etc.
And so to me, Brandy's argument that it is light a certain amount of time during the day no matter what and that DST just plays with it....well that just does NOT hold water with me at all....because what good is it to a kid (or more importantly to ME AS AN ADULT WHO WANTS TO SLEEP!!) if it is daylight at the crack of dawn.
So when good old daylight savings time rolls around, I rejoice....it's a sign of spring, and more importantly summer, memories of childhood of being able to stay outside in the afternoon and early evening.....picnic suppers, playing softball at Holstein Park with my sisters after dinner (if there's time)....going out for ice cream, or in St. Louis frozen custard or Maggie Moo's.....
I also like to make new memories....of playing in the yard with Olivia, walking around the block while we wait for my husband to come home. It rarely gets dark until oh about 8 ish here, maybe 8.30ish. When I was visiting Michigan on the other side of the lake, I was absolutely floored that it did not get dark until past 9 because they are officially in the eastern time zone, but they are essentially in the same geographic space, so they got an extra-late sunset. It was just, well, weird, kind of like being in France in the summer, where it did not get dark until 11 pm.
Back to DST....
Why do I like it.....because it's something to look forward to, something to mourn when it goes away. One year when I was in high school, my sister refused to change the clocks back for the longest time. She quoted the episode of The Simpsons (always our favorite) where Grandpa gets a job 'that's your policy, not mine!' I'm not sure when she finally gave in, but she had to eventually.
I lived in St. Louis for 4 years, and I did not want to leave, but I was done with my coursework and my husband had a better paying job. St. Louis was far more tolerable, winter-wise. By some geographic oddity, it did not get dark until at least 5 every night in the winter, and of course, the weather was far more mild. It also stayed lighter in the summer until at least 8.30.
What can I say, I like it when it gets dark later and the sun rises later. I have no use for an early sunrise.
My mother lived in Arizona from September of 2001 until the summer of 2004, and I visited her several times....I can tell you that it was just weird there....the sun always rising and setting at the same time.....I did not like it; but then again, she was living in Sun City Grand, and, well, actually, I think her community had an artificiality about it that I just could not see myself living in.
So sorry for the super-long post, but I got a bit nostalgic.....I love the DST....most, if not all of my family does, and I will march in the streets for it before I will give it up, LOL! Yes, I am that contrary!
With lots of affection,
Catherine
PS--
some things that I have also noticed this year because of you, Brandy
1) DST may not save money overall, but it saves our house money--our electric bills have consistently gone down by 1/3
2) part of my depression is SAD (Seasonal affective disorder), which is depression caused by a lack of natural sunlight....I have tried using a lightbulb with mixed results, DST works better
3) There is a hidden irony that I live: I used to work for a cancer surgeon for 6+ years; although I love sunlight, I am rabidly anti-sun exposure. I wear special SPF 60+ with mexoryl brought in from Germany every single day because I have seen too many people (especially young ones) die of skin cancer, and my husband had a mole that bothered me and it turned out to be premelanoma. It put the fear of sun in me, yet Olivia LOVES the sun and going outside---go figure!
4) I was still thrilled beyond belief when DST was extended to start in March and end in November.
And that's all folks!
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