Tag Archives: Standard Time

environmental news, State news

Yes on DST!

My man cave wall calendar caught my eye this morning as I was getting my day started.

It told me that on March 10 we return to Daylight Saving Time. My first reaction? Why can’t we just make it a permanent feature of our calendar? No need to switch to Standard Time in the fall and then back to DST in the spring.

We go through this drill every year. We switch back and forth and every … single … year we hear the same gripes from those who bitch about their body clocks needing adjustment. How they cannot get used to the extra hour of daylight in the evening or having to “fall back” in the autumn.

Personally, I never have had a problem with switching to Daylight Time and then back to Standard Time. However, if we’re going to keep bitching about doing it, my own preference would be to keep the Daylight Saving Time as a permanent fixture.

I like the extended daylight in the late spring and summer months. As for the fall and winter months, well … I wouldn’t care. It gets darker earlier in that time of the year.

The Texas Legislature a couple of sessions ago toyed with the idea of asking Texans what they preferred. The proposed resolution would have placed three issues on the ballot: Keep it as it is; permanent DST; or permanent Standard Time. I was prepared to vote for permanent Daylight Saving Time … but then the Legislature couldn’t get its crap together in time to put the issue on the ballot.

Maybe the 2025 Legislature can get organized early enough when it convenes in January to enable us to decide what we want to do. I know that’s a big ask, given the nature of our Legislature and the idiocy that seems to govern the legislative flow at times.

I’ll hope for the best. Meantime, I am going to enjoy Daylight Saving Time when it arrives in a couple of weeks.

local news

Permanent Daylight Time?

Well, kids … we sprang forward overnight, an event that produced the usual ration of griping — some of it good-natured — about the loss of an hours’ sleep and showing up late for some appointment this morning.

To be honest, I’ll stipulate that the time change — from Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time — doesn’t bother me. I’m manic about setting clocks the night before. So, when the alarm goes off on Day One of Daylight Time, I usually am ready to get the day started.

All that said, I am wondering if the Texas Legislature ever will finish the job it tried to finish in its 2019 session when it ran out of time before referring a time-change measure to Texans that fall.

You might recall that the Legislature was pondering a three-choice option for voters. We were supposed to get a chance to state whether we wanted to shift to permanent Daylight Saving Time, permanent Standard Time or keep it the way it is, with a twice-annual time switch.

I stated then that if given a choice, I would prefer to go to a permanent Daylight Saving Time. I like the extended daylight at the end of the day. A permanent Standard Time setup would put the sun down too early in the evening for my taste.

But … as I noted, switching back and forth is not a big deal for me.

There might be a congressional push to make it a federal law, simply taking this entire matter out of the states’ hands. A few states already have forsaken Daylight Saving Time, preferring to not monkey around with switching clocks.

This whole concept has been around for a while. Switching to Daylight Saving Time was intended to save energy, allowing Americans to avoid turning on their lights in the late afternoon. I’m fine with that, too. So, why not make it permanent?

Eschewing the time-switch would be a nod to those who dislike the government mandating such behavior. Switching to a permanent time system would satisfy conservatives; hey, we seem to agree on something! How about that?

This debate is likely to flare yet again in Congress. I say “flare” because that’s what always seems to happen in that sharply divided body. Maybe they can put their partisan differences aside — finally! — and agree on this simple idea.

Or, they can simply let the states decide. Well, Texas legislators? Will you do it?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, State news

Standard or Daylight?

Now that many millions of Americans have been told to “fall back” to Standard Time, I want to revisit an issue that comes up about, oh, twice a year … or about the time we go to Daylight Saving Time or back to Standard Time.

At issue is whether we ought to keep switching between DST and Standard Time. For me, I don’t care. It never has bothered me to change the clocks in my house twice annually. I don’t feel sleep deprived after losing the hour in the spring when we, um, “spring forward.” Nor does falling back in the autumn give me any grief.

However, if we were to cease the back-and-forth, my preference would be to stick with a permanent Daylight Saving Time, I like the longer daylight hours in the evening.

The 2019 Texas Legislature was set to ask Texas residents what we preferred: permanent DST, permanent Standard Time, or keep changing back and forth.  The Legislature, though, couldn’t prepare a statewide resolution in time and the measure died a quiet death that hardly anyone even noticed.

Now we hear about Congress possibly enacting a federal law.  Same thing, folks. If we’re going to keep a permanent time on the books, I would ask our federal lawmakers to stick with a permanent Daylight Saving Time.

Absent that, well, then just allow us to change our clocks in the spring and again in the fall.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Permanent DST? Sure, why not?

I want to make the case once more for a change in our clock-changing regimen.

We’ve just backed the time off one hour, returning to Standard Time. I am not dedicated to any sort of reform, but if we’re going to do away with the twice-yearly time change, I want to argue on behalf of permanent Daylight Saving Time.

Why that instead of permanent Standard Time? I guess it’s because I dislike the sun setting at 5:30 p.m. Man, it got dark quickly tonight on this first day of Standard Time.

Yes, the sun rises a bit earlier in the morning … at least for a while. Earth’s rotation will take care of that eventually as we get near the first day of winter around the third week of December. After that the days start lengthening.

I want to stipulate that I have no particular problem with the time change. Springing forward in the spring at the start of DST doesn’t bother me; nor does fall back in the autumn to Standard Time. I know, though, that some legislators here in Texas want to do away with the time change. We were supposed to be able to vote on it in 2019 but the Legislature never got the bill ready in time to submit it. The choices would have been to (a) keep the time change, (b) settle on permanent Standard Time or (c) settle on permanent Daylight Saving Time. I would have voted to keep the time change.

If we are forced to scrap the status quo, then I would argue for permanent DST.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Permanent DST? Hmm, why not?

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This time change thing has produced more debate on whether we should keep it or switch to a permanent time standard.

To be honest, none of this affects me personally all that much, but if I had to make a choice, here is what I would suggest.

Switch to a permanent Daylight Saving Time. Make it national. Pass a law that says that all of our states adhere to the same way of determining what time of day it is.

Texas flirted with the idea of switching to either permanent DST, permanent Standard Time or keeping the status quo. The 2019 Legislature ran out of time to send the issue to the voters.

Now we hear a bipartisan group of U.S. senators backing a notion to switch to a permanent Daylight Saving Time arrangement, according to a report on National Public Radio.

Some Senators Want Permanent Daylight Saving Time | 88.9 KETR

When was the last time you had Democrats and Republicans agree on something? I know. It seems like forever.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, is trying to resurrect the permanent DST issue. As NPR reports: He cited multiple benefits to permanent DST including potentially fewer car accidents and easing seasonal depression.

What’s more, according to NPR: The effort is supported by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who echoed Rubio in highlighting the potential benefits of extending DST. “Studies have found year-round Daylight Saving Time would improve public health, public safety, and mental health — especially important during this cold and dark COVID winter,” Markey said.

Not everyone is on board, according to NPR: Opponents of permanent daylight saving time note that winter mornings would be darker, with children more often having to wait for the school bus in the dark.

I happen to prefer the longer afternoon and early evening daylight, which DST brings to us. Remember, too, that one of the selling points of DST is that it would conserve electrical energy, given that we don’t turn our lights on so early at the end of the day.

I am not going to lose any sleep over this, no pun intended. I’m just delighted to see Democrats and Republicans agreeing on something … for a change.

State news, Uncategorized

Welcome back, DST

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The grumbling has begun.

About what? Oh, the annual switch from Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time. We’re going to make the change on Sunday, “springing forward” to DST just as we do every year. We “fall back” to Standard Time in the autumn of the year.

If only the complaining would stop.

I might be the only American around who has no particular problem with this time-change deal. It doesn’t bother me.

Folks gripe about it every year, right? They bitch about losing that hour of sleep at night. Then they moan that their bodies cannot adjust to the time change. Please, man.

If the Texas Legislature can get through its more important matters, such as finding solutions to our state’s power grid problem, perhaps it will try once again to decide how to repair this time-change thing … as if it needs repair.

The 2019 Legislature came within a whisker of putting a time-change issue on the ballot. It ran out of time. The thought was to let Texas voters decide (a) whether to go to Standard Time all year long, (b) go to Daylight Saving Time all year or (c) keep it as it is.

My choice, if I had been given the chance to vote, would be to switch to a year-long DST regimen. Why? I like the extended daylight in the evening. I cannot explain precisely why that is the case. It just is … you know?

Absent that choice, I generally do not complain out loud about the time change. I won’t do it this spring. I don’t plan on doing so when we switch back again in the fall to Standard Time.

State news

Fall back … and get set for the complaints

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Get ready for it.

Americans are going to “fall back” to Standard Time overnight and many of us are going to bitch to high heaven about having to change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time.

I want to be clear about two points.

One is that I don’t have a problem with changing back and forth. We advance the clocks an hour in the spring to commence Daylight Saving Time and then we set ’em back an hour in the fall to return to Standard Time. I hear it constantly: Oh, the time changes messes me up; it messes up the kids, too.

I cannot speak to the issues of parents with young children, since my own sons are grown; one of them has a young daughter, so he’s got to deal with her issues. As for me, I don’t have a problem with the time change.

I get why we have had Daylight Saving Time in the first place; it was to conserve energy, enjoy late-in-the-day daylight and refrain from turning on lights and consuming electrical energy. I actually like DST for that reason.

That said, if the Texas Legislature was able in 2019 to craft a change, I would have voted to keep DST on for the entire year. The Legislature sought to offer us a choice: full time DST, full-time Standard Time or keep the status quo by changing back and forth twice each year. The legislation didn’t make it out of the Legislature in time for a vote.

So, here we are. We’ll change back to Standard Time. The sun will rise in the morning a bit earlier but it will go dark earlier in the evening.

Yawn … and many of us will gripe about it. You won’t hear a word of complaint from me.

local news

Daylight Saving Time? No big deal … really!

Oh, how I have to chuckle at all the hand-wringing over what’s about to occur this weekend.

We’re going to bed Saturday night and will awaken the next morning with the sky staying dark an hour longer than it did the previous day. The good news, as I see it, is that the sun will stay in the sky an hour later than it did at the end of the day.

Yep, Daylight Saving Time will be upon us once again. We’ll have it until November.

Why the worry among many of us ? I guess some folks just don’t like changing their schedule. They dislike losing an hour of sleep, which they wouldn’t really lose if they simply went to sleep an hour earlier than normal. You know?

The 2019 Texas Legislature flirted with the idea of scrapping DST. Legislators prepared a bill that would have produced a statewide referendum asking us three questions. We could vote to (a) change to permanent Standard Time (b) change to permanent Daylight Saving Time or (c) keep the status quo, meaning we would change times twice a year.

I never — ever! — have had a problem with switching back and forth. It doesn’t bother me in the least. However, were I given the choice I would vote to switch to permanent Daylight Saving Time. I like having the sun in the sky a little longer at the end of the day.

I realize the sun still sets earlier in the winter months than it does in the summer, given Earth’s rotation and how it tilts away from the sun in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter. However, I also appreciate the reason for establishing DST in the first place, which was to preserve energy by allowing us to keep the lights off a little longer in the late afternoon and early evening.

The Legislature ended up choking on the referendum. It never managed to put the issue to a vote. As I recall, legislators ran out of time. So the issue died a quiet death.

The 2021 Legislature might bring it up again. Fine. Go for it, ladies and gents. I’ll still vote for permanent DST if I get the chance.

Meantime, I welcome the return of Daylight Saving Time, even if it means we have to switch back to Standard Time in a few months.

It’s not a big deal, folks. Honest!

local news

Time-change bill dies … but is it really dead?

Blogger’s Note: This item was published originally on KETR-FM’s website. High Plains Blogger wanted to share it here. Enjoy.

This isn’t the biggest bill ever to die a quiet death in the Texas Legislature, but it might be one of the more talked-about once lawmakers decide to pack it in for this session and head home to their respective districts.

It’s the bill that would have allowed Texans to vote later this year on whether to ditch the twice-yearly time change – from Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time … and back again.

The Texas Senate, apparently because of “inaction” by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, has allowed the bill to wither away and die. Texans won’t be voting on this measure in the fall.

Too bad? Well, that depends, I suppose, on your point of view.

For me, it makes no never mind.

Every year – first in the spring and then in the autumn – we gripe and moan about the time change. We holler in the spring when we move the clocks ahead and lose that hour of sleep; some of us are late for worship services that Sunday (because the time change occurs officially at 2 a.m. those days). Then we yap in the fall when we set the clocks back an hour, regaining that hour of sleep we lost in the spring; I don’t know this with any certainty, but perhaps some of us even get to our house of worship an hour early.

None of this ever has bothered me.

I understand the reason for enacting Daylight Saving Time. It was done initially to conserve energy. We get more daylight later in the day and don’t have to turn on the lights quite so early. Thus, we conserve valuable electricity, which is powered by, oh, the finite supply of fossil fuel. Oh, sure, we rely more in Texas these days on wind power, the sun and maybe some bio-fuels produced from corn and other crops.

But the clamor to switch to the same time all year long is a bit overheated to suit my taste.

The bill’s author, state Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, said Texans supposedly have passionate views on the issue. I presume he means “all Texans.” Count me out, Rep. Larson. I ain’t one of ‘em.

For the record, if I had the chance to vote on which time to use, I’d stick with Daylight Saving Time. Why? I like the extra sunshine in the evening. Yes, it also saves energy.

But it’s all for naught, right?

Maybe not. There might be a special session in our immediate future this summer if Rep. Larson and his House allies feel strongly enough about it and can persuade Gov. Greg Abbott to call one and then put the time-change issue on the agenda.

But I hope not.

State news

Daylight saving or standard time? Let’s decide

Texas lawmakers appear to be on the verge of giving Texans a fascinating election choice later this year.

It will be whether to scrap the twice-a-year switch between standard time and daylight saving time and keep our clocks fixed on the same time all year long.

I like the idea of giving us a chance to vote on this matter, even though I tend to think we vote on too many issues already in Texas.

For the record, I’ll state once again that switching back and forth is no big deal to me. I don’t mind the time change, even in the spring when we supposedly “lose” an hour of sleep because we push our clocks ahead an hour at the start of daylight saving time.

But since the Legislature is going to ask us to state a preference, I guess I should weigh in.

I would like to see us stay on daylight saving time. I prefer the extra hour at the end of the day, which is what a year-long daylight saving time setting would bring us.

But . . . that’s just me.

The Texas Tribune reports that the Legislature is preparing a two-part referendum. The first part asks whether a referendum on daylight saving time can occur; the Texas Constitution doesn’t allow for it now, so approving the first part of the ballot measure would legitimize the second part. That would be whether to follow a standard time or daylight saving time all year long.

I suppose you could presume that rejecting the first part of the ballot measure would be to reject the idea of tossing out the back/forth time change. State Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, my former state legislator, sought to add a third element to the measure — keeping the time-change switch — but the amendment lost on a narrow 72-70 vote.

I do endorse the notion of putting this idea to a vote.

So, let’s settle it once and for all.

Then we cease the bitching about springing forward and falling back twice each year.