Coming soon: more Daylight Savings Time!

Do you feel like you got away with an hour today?
I can't tell. I went to bed an hour later and still dragged my ass out to run this morning, but what beauty in Discovery Park.

I've always assumed time change were leftovers from agricultural living, working in the fields at night... but absolutely not. It's all about energy saving, an idea that's over 200 years old.

Here's a little time-twisting history:
The father of Daylight Savings Time is our favorite Renaissance Patriot, Benjamin Franklin. He suggested the idea when he was minister to France, in an essay titled "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light." This was 1784 and it wasn't until 1907, when an Englishman named William Willet suggested it after walking passed a home with drawn shades on a bright summer night.

Here's what's in store for us: more of it.

Starting next year, 2007, for most of the U.S., DST will begin at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March; and it will end at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.

Sometimes I lie and go along with the crowds. Right now the crowd is saying, Christ I hate this darkness boo hoo, and I nod my head and scowl. But I actually rather like it; the warm sulky cozy blanket of darkness is luscious for some privacy of the soul, creative time, writing, reading, and for getting home after work and going straight for the pajamas, eating dinner and heading off to bed with a pile of books. Aren't we all a wee bit tired from those long active days of summer anyway?

Also, there is always a new wave of flora unfolding in the fall and winter. Even sweet smells. Keep your eyes and nose peeled--something beautiful always awaits you in the dark seasons. Just be awake enough to catch it.
Get more history behind Daylight Savings Time.
Arwork, "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali.