Daylight Saving Time Begins This Weekend – Spring Ahead Iowans!
Every spring, we move our clocks ahead one hour. The theory behind moving our clocks to 'summertime' is to give us more natural light in the evening. It saves energy and gives you more time to be outside working or playing. Personally, I love it! But, then again who, doesn't it?
This year, Daylight Savings Time runs from March 13th through November 6th. That's 8 months out of the year...to me, that makes a strong case for just keeping it all year round. As usual, it's a hot topic once again. I would have to agree, what's the point of "falling back" an hour for 4 months? Unless you're a big fan of it getting dark at 4:30 pm in December.
It would also alleviate some of the other "negatives" of the time change. For instance, no more losing an hour of sleep and no more messing with your internal clock! There also have been studies showing people suffer more heart attacks the morning after we spring forward. Plus, another study found a brief spike in car accidents right after the clocks shifted forward in March.
Anyway, the march toward summertime starts this Sunday morning at 2 a.m. You can make it easy on yourself and set all the clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed Saturday evening.
What's your routine for setting all of the clocks ahead?
Here's what I do. Start with the clock in your living room, and move on to all bedrooms and bathrooms. Make sure you don't forget to re-set your microwave and/or stove clocks as well! Otherwise, if you forget to set your clocks ahead, you'll be an hour LATE everywhere you go on Sunday, and you don't want everyone pointing and laughing at you when you wander into church late.
Remember to set aside at least an hour on Sunday afternoon to stare at your vehicle's radio trying to remember how to set the time on it. (Good luck with that!)
Of course, this is all sort of a moot point, because the majority of people keep track of time on their cell phones, and they automatically switch the time over to CDT. However, if you're "old school" like me, see how many days go by before you notice that you forgot to set the time on that one clock in your garage.
Is it Daylight SavingS Time or Daylight Saving Time?
Finally, the "grammar police" are out on patrol...and they noted that the term is “Daylight Saving Time” and not “Daylight Savings Time” (with an extra “s” at the end of “saving”), many of us are guilty of saying it the wrong way. A quick explanation from my English teacher friend: the word “saving” is singular because it acts as part of an adjective rather than a verb. (Wait...is this gonna be on the test? lol...)
By the way, on serious note, Fire Prevention experts remind everyone that these "time changes" we go through, are always a good time to check the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. Stay safe...and enjoy the extra hour of sunshine, the sun won't set until well after 7pm on Sunday, and that will be glorious.