I was joking with some folks Saturday afternoon about what they were going to do with their extra hour yesterday. The clocks rolled back an hour for daylight savings time at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning giving us an extra hour in our day.

It’s like a gift. How many times do you find yourself saying, “If I only hand more hours in a day.” Well, yesterday you did. Sixty whole minutes. Yes, initially those minutes came in the middle of the night; so most people say their time was used sleeping. Given that my Sunday morning routine was pretty normal, I didn’t feel the extra hour until last night when it got dark at 7:00 p.m. I was starting to get that “it’s time to settle in feeling.” I did get one chore done that has been nagging at me for months so I’ll give credit to having an extra hour in my day.

I’m not sure if daylight savings time begins or ends in the fall. If it’s ending in fall, are we getting the hour back we gave last spring or are we being given an hour on loan from next spring when we will be forced to give it back. Why doesn’t the time change get confused when during a leap year when we have an entire day added to our calendar? These and others are the questions that confound me about time. It’s like trying to grasp water.

Some fun facts about daylight savings – Some historical leaders are credited with creating daylight savings time to conserve candles and fuels for creating light during war times. In the early part of the century it was said that daylight savings time benefited the farmers as well as summer recreation such as ballgames. Today daylight savings time is used in 70 countries around the world. Most of the US participates in daylight savings time except for Hawaii and parts of Arizona.

What did you do with your extra hour yesterday?

KK

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.

                — Benjamin Franklin