I Am Your Clock

Here comes more darkness. Prepare to fall back. All of us early risers will appreciate the extra hour to get the planet warmed up for us before heading out into the fog, but I'm not sure everyone wins with daylight savings time. Sure, there's the initial thrill of getting that extra hour of sleep - but I can't for the life of me remember the last time that meant that I actually slept an extra hour. I just woke up, looked at the clock, and thought "Hey, I could still be asleep."
When I used to work late-night at Arby's, there was always a lot of discussion around daylight savings time. Did that mean that we got to close an hour later, or were we supposed to wait until we were closed to move the clocks back? Six months later we wondered if we were supposed to stay open past the clock switch. It was all fairly arbitrary, since no matter when we locked the doors, there would always be one hungry drunk boy pounding on the glass, demanding his Beef'n'Cheddar.
Along similar lines, a bill to extend daylight savings time to Halloween is proposed in almost every session of Congress, with the purpose of providing trick-or-treaters more light and therefore more safety from traffic accidents. ChildrenÂ’s pedestrian deaths are four times higher on Halloween than on any other night of the year. Also, for decades, candy manufacturers have lobbied for a Daylight Saving Time extension to Halloween, as many of the young trick-or-treaters gathering candy are not allowed out after dark, and thus an added hour of light could mean a big holiday treat for the candy industry. More daylight, more Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - pretty simple equation.
Tomorrow morning I'll be doing myusuall bleary walk through the house, resetting clocks. I will probably forget one - I always do (the microwave or the thermostat). We will continue this aimless adherence to Standard Time until we all Spring Back. In the end, I guess it's all about resilience, isn't it?