Friday Follies ~~ Fall Back

Of course this coming weekend is the one where we change our clocks.

As the old Indian said,  “You cut twelve inches off of the bottom of the blanket and sew it onto the top of the blanket.  Only the Government would think this makes a longer blanket.”

In the Spring you lose an hour, and in the Fall you gain an hour.  You can remember this by the old jingle,  “Spring Ahead and Fall Back.” 

That’s supposed to make it easier to remember what to do with the clock.  Right?  If it works for you, fine.  It only increases my confusion.

Possibly some of the trouble is with the Words themselves.  “Spring ahead.”  Well, if I’m  getting ahead, I’m doing it in less time and I’m getting earlier.  But we actually set the clocks so it’s later.  Just doesn’t make sense to me.

Then there’s the other part of the jingle.  “Fall back.”  To me a fallback is a prepared position to use if one is being overcome, or getting late, or if one cannot conclude the assigned task in the allotted time.  That just doesn’t agree well with intent of the thing.

I do know this.  The Earth is tilted and it orbits the Sun.  That gives us seasons.  It also changes the amount of daylight in a day.  Most days, I ride my bike in the morning and the evening.  In the Summer I ride in daylight at both ends of the day.  In the Winter, at least one of my rides occurs in the darkness.  Right around the Solstice (usually 21 December) both of my rides are apt to be in the dark..  These are physical facts.  They cannot be altered by governmental decree.

There is this about the return to Standard Time.  I’ll start my ride to work an hour warmer than has been the case, and I will start my ride home an hour cooler.  On balance, I’m just a bit warmer than I would be if we were still observing Saving Time.  The darker evening hours do tend to give a greater incentive for Spin Class.

Does anyone else feel like this whole time-change is an exercise in folly?