Ten Days of Winter Left.

Ten days.

Yesterday, we had a surprise dump of snow that fell on top of a sleepy city, not yet adjusted to the early time change this year (I really hope, beyond all hopes, that one of Obama's accomplishments is to do away with daylight savings time).

I find myself unsettled this week. I have a lot to squeeze in -- social visits, birthday celebrations, and all the preparations that go with each of those, as well as breathing life into a website or two. Unfortunately, with the renewed cold weather and the dark mornings again, I just don't feel like doing any of it. At least I only have a 3 day work week and next week is short by a day, too, so I can spend some spring break time with Kiddo.

Time remains unchanged...

Last night, something strange happened. All day, I felt out of whack and by the time 10:30 rolled around I was nowhere near sleepy. Hubby suggested that after over 30 years of adjusting to the end of Daylight Savings Time at the end of October my body had actually anticipated the change. Normally, I would grumpily wave that kind of suggestion off... but it might hold water; recent research shows that our bodies never really adjust to Daylight Savings timeshifts in the spring, so maybe my body just wanted to get back to normal.

Of course, thanks to knuckleheaded US Congress and Canada's ovine politicians, we are "falling back" one week later than we have for years. I've said it before and I'll say it again. We need to abolish this stupid timeshift nonsense altogether. Just knock it off already and give me my natural rhythm back!

Daylight "Savings" Fracas.

I really want to point fingers today.... so I am picking what I thought was an easy target, the change to the longer Daylight Savings time.

First and foremost, I blame Gorge W. Bush and his Congress for enacting the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Section 110 of which reads in part as follows:

(a) Amendment- Section 3(a) of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. 260a(a)) is amended--

(1) by striking `first Sunday of April' and inserting `second Sunday of March'; and

(2) by striking `last Sunday of October' and inserting `first Sunday of November'.

(b) Effective Date- Subsection (a) shall take effect 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act or March 1, 2007, whichever is later.

But then it gets trickier. Who can I blame in Canada? I want to blame Stephen Harper and his Parliament, but nOOOoooo. According to this Info Sheet provided by the Library of Parliament, in Canada it is up to the Provinces and Territories to set their time (which makes sense since Saskatchewan does not participate, nor do some regions in BC or Quebec).

"Great!" I thought, "Another reason to point fingers at Gordon Campbell."

But I was wrong again. Apparently, in BC, it's the Attourney General who gets to make that call,

"The Attorney General is responsible for the Interpretation Act, which includes reference to time and is the authority under which Daylight Saving Time is prescribed in the province."

or at least that's what it says in this press release from last March. So who was the Attourney General last March? Same as now, Wally Oppal.

So, thank you Mr. Oppal. Thank you for bowing to useless pressure and promoting a useless measure which should have been abandoned long, long ago.

There is no conclusive proof that the change will in fact save much energy. The report that formed the basis for the Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a 2001 Staff Report from the California Energy Commission. Interestingly, the report suggests savings from Double DST -- in other words, move forward an hour in March 2007, then don't shift back, but move forward again in March 2008, then shift back in November 2008.... oh I am glad they didn't choose that boneheaded plan.