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Grasshopper Soup: It’s time to leave time alone

TAHOE/TRUCKEE and#8212; Itand#8217;s about time (pun intended) we dispensed with daylight-saving. Daylight-saving time is one of the most unnecessary things ever to come from the Big Bang, or the first word God ever spoke (which some say was, and#8220;No!and#8221;). There are too many unnecessary things left over from the Big Bang, like the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members (Iand#8217;ve heard there are about 30 of them and nobody else will join) picket military funerals and carry red, yellow and black signs that say and#8220;GOD HATES YOUand#8221;. Maybe theyand#8217;re right, which would make me wrong because I donand#8217;t believe a word they say, except when they say, and#8220;Hey, itand#8217;s time to quit carrying these signs. We need to go.and#8221; And they do.

Didnand#8217;t daylight-saving time begin as something to do with child labor for farmerand#8217;s kids? Free child labor can be a good thing and should be utilized frequently. If that sounds like a misleading characterization it just proves my point that DST is irrelevant today.

You can research why we practice the strange ritual of changing the clock twice a year but thereand#8217;s half a chance that when you get to the library it will be closed. Then you can go skiing or golfing and miss a major appointment by an hour or two.



Daylight-saving is especially useless this time of year because, no matter what we do with our clocks, the days keep getting shorter anyway!

Maybe our official time keepers make us do it just for fun so they feel like they are in charge. People in authority like to control us and make us do mundane, time-consuming things, like go to the DMV, pay income tax and re-set clocks. But the thing government authorities love to do most of all is the exact opposite of what we want them to do.



Government officials wonand#8217;t admit it, but they figure that, theoretically, our votes donand#8217;t count because the small percentage who vote donand#8217;t represent the entire populace.

We all benefit from good government, when we can find it. The problem is, thereand#8217;s no point in changing clocks or not when time keeps changing anyway. It doesnand#8217;t matter who says we should change time or not. No matter how much daylight we save, it will never gain any interest. And you canand#8217;t recycle June in December.

Time management can be a sore subject, but DST is not relevant in todayand#8217;s world. With so many people doing business on line and communicating by machine we donand#8217;t live like farmers anymore, although maybe we should. And we have lights now. As far as child labor goes these days, kids canand#8217;t even open a lemonade stand without drawing the heat.

Most people have figured out that it is better to let nature do her own thing with day and night, the illusion of time and the splitting of rock by ice and sun. Surely we can practice surrendering to natural time twice a year. Weand#8217;ll have to do it forever eventually.

Every cloud has a silver lining. More sunlight enters south-facing windows in winter than in summer because of the low sun angle. For almost six months in Fall and Winter I can sunbathe on the floor, but, in summer, my floor, and my radiometer, never sees the sun.

DST is too confusing. Especially if you like to go out for a few drinks on Saturday night. The time doesnand#8217;t officially change until 2 a.m. Sunday morning, so, if you have a few drinks between 11 p.m. and midnight, then set your clock back after your last drink so you donand#8217;t forget to do it when you get home, all of a sudden itand#8217;s the same time it was before you had those drinks, which means you really never had them. Isnand#8217;t that right?

California should keep time like Arizona. Let the daylight come and go as nature intended. Clocks have become too important. They should not rule our lives. If you get too clocked it can knock the living daylights out of you.

Bob Sweigert is a Sierra Sun columnist, published poet, former college instructor and ski instructor. He has a B.A. and an M.A.T. from Gonzaga University. He has lived at Lake Tahoe for 28 years.


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