Departures...and dang Daylight Savings Time
- Michael Jay Tucker's explosive-cargo
- 8 minutes ago
- 5 min read
So last time, I had just gotten us to the end of Vincent’s birthday. The next morning, March 9, was a day of departures.
The kids and g’kids were first. They needed to be in Texas for reasons ranging from work to school, and they were leaving early. Martha and I had hoped to get up early, race over to their hotel, and say Bye.
Insert here the expression “You must be joking.” And, for sound effects, maybe insert a derisive chortle. Plus a snicker. So long as it’s derisive. With maybe a large sneer on the side.
We ended up sleeping late. Several reasons for that. First, because we were very tired. Second, because we forgot to set an alarm on either of our phones. Second, we *did* set the alarm on the hotel room clock, which comes under the heading of Special Kind of Stupid because it didn’t go off. Or, rather it did, but not until four o’clock that afternoon.
And, last, because we had Sprung Forward that day. I mean, we went to daylight savings time.
You know, there are worse things than Springing Forward. I’m sure there are. Like Anthrax. Or explosive diarrhea. In public. Or at your in-laws. During Thanksgiving dinner. Yes. That would be as bad. Or, almost, anyway.
ABOUT THE PHOTOS: First, from Redstart Foods. I’ve already posted a picture of Martha (and me, in a mirror) from the place, but here’s another. Second, I mentioned the decaying Quonset Hut, and here are a couple of shots from it. (I do love a bit of rust and gothic ruination in the morning.) And, finally, here’s the crew lighting candles on the day of the party.
I gotta confess, I’ve come to hate daylight savings time. It screws me up for days afterwards. I have trouble sleeping, and waking up, and staying alert during the day. I frequently get sick at some point shortly after the change. (Remember the public diarrhea referenced above? Hasn’t happened yet. But give it time.) And, well, honestly...you know I suffer from mild depression. Well, guess what gets a whole lot worse when I start walking up and the clock says its morning but the sky says more clearly than words that its really, really dark and you should get back into bed ASAP unless you’re dumb as a brick and twice as cubical. So there too.
Actually, this is one of those rare places in life where I actually have good reasons for my opinions. I’ve even looked it up. There are actually scientific studies showing that Day Light Savings Time is a pretty nasty brute all in all. I’ll put some references in the footnotes.(1) Suffice to say though, that I’m not the only one to suffer from the mental and physical consequences of the time shift. (2)
Oh, and I gather that one of the major justifications for Daylight Savings Time -- that is, saving energy -- isn’t all that solid, either.(3) People just turn on more lights in the morning dark, and more air conditioners in hot weather on sunny days.(4) Meaning no energy saving at all.
So, personally, I think that we just either ought to go on Day Light Savings time year around, or abandon it altogether.(5) Either way is fine, so long as it happens soon. At least that’s my opinion. But, curious thing, nobody seems to pay much attention to my opinions. Which is darn stupid of people in general...at least in my opinion. Which is another opinion of mine they ignore. Nice little game we’ve got here, don’t you think? Sorta like an infinite feedback loop.
Anyway, we missed seeing the kids before they took off. But at least we managed to get a call into them (God bless cell phones on speaker) before they headed out. Then, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and, after that, headed over to Vincent’s.
His sisters were already there. Mark, Joanne’s husband, had also left early that morning. He had business a conference to attend. The New England Four--Tom, Jim, Patty, Michele -- had already been by, and then they had also flown out.
So, we chatted with Vincent for a bit. Peggy, Vincent’s sister, had to leave, but Joanne decided she would join us for lunch. Martha and I suggested that we try the place the kids had told us about, Redstart Foods. We headed out.
We arrived a short time afterwards. It was rather an interesting place, and I’ll post a picture or two, but, as I said last time, it turned out that they weren’t serving food. We were kind of late and the kitchen was closed.
Ah, we wondered, what we should do instead...particularly as the (Daylight shifted) time was moving on and we were getting hungry. Where should we go from here?
“Ah ha,” said Vincent. “The Persian place!” The one the New England Four had suggested.
And, after a quick break to take photos of a picturesque (and decaying) Quonset Hut we found in the area, we were off again...
This time to have some very nice Iranian food, and discuss a great Persian Poet.
More to come.
Footnotes:
1. I gather that the idea behind Daylight Savings Time (DST) was that it would give people more time to do things in the sunlight during summer hours. The idea has even been credited to Ben Franklin, who supposedly suggested (as a joke) that the clock be shifted forward in summer hours during summer hours so that people could get more work done before it got dark. However, I gather that’s not proven. It’s more likely that DST came along as a response to industrialization in the early 20th century. See “Daylight savings time,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time
2. DST’s effects on people’s health and safety are rather distressing. It disturbs their sleep cycles, for one thing, and is associated with increased accidents in the workplace. See, for example:
• “Daylight saving time causes lower productivity and higher health care costs, studies say,” PBS, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/daylight-saving-time-causes-lower-productivity-and-higher-health-care-costs-studies-say
• “The dark side of daylight saving time: Why can an hour's time change in spring disrupt our body, sleep, and mental health?” by Matthew Solan, Executive Editor, Harvard Men's Health Watch, https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-dark-side-of-daylight-saving-time
3. For most of my life, at least, the major justification for DST was that it “saved energy.” I can very distinctly remember walking to school in the dark during one oil embargo or another in my youth. It wasn’t clear to me that dodging cars before dawn on heavily traveled roads was such a great idea.
4. It’s pretty clear that DST doesn’t save energy. Or at least not much. See “Energy use: Analysis of daylight saving time,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_of_daylight_saving_time#Energy_use
5. Both of these are options, and both have been proposed time and time again. Why one or the other hasn’t been done remains a mystery to me. See: “AASM experts advocate for permanent standard time ahead of ‘fall back’,” American Academy of Sleep Medicine, https://aasm.org/aasm-experts-advocate-for-permanent-standard-time-ahead-of-fall-back/
Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker
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