I’ll admit it. I was a little more tired than normal this morning.
As much as I prefer the ‘Spring Forward’ to its counterpart, ‘Fall Back,’ I have to say it really couldn’t have fallen at a worse time this year for our family. After four very late nights associated with the run of “My Fair Lady” at Farragut High School, we weren’t able to properly prepare ourselves for the time change.
So…Late Nights + Time Change = Very Tired
If you had forced me to take a side this morning, I might have been a little more prone to jump over to the 84% in a recent Women’s Day poll who say we should NOT observe Daylight Saving Time. That, of course, begs two questions: 1. Who are the 16% in that poll? (And, more importantly, 2. Are us guys even eligible to vote? Should we even be reading?).
While I consider those two points, remember the whole idea of Daylight Saving Time goes back to the days of Ben Franklin. He was one of the earliest proponents. Then, of course, you have to skip forward nearly 150 years until it was officially adopted as an energy conservation method during WWI era (1918).
Opponents of the time change will say it is an outmoded practice. Proponents (and this is where I come down on it) love the extra evening daylight. Growing up on the eastern side of the Central Time Zone in West TN, you could count on daylight fading to dusk at nearly 10 p.m. in the heart of summer.
That translated into a lot of playtime. Or for lawn mowing or other general outside work for adults.
Later, in my baseball coaching days, I loved the extra light outside for practice or games.
I read a couple great suggestions in the days leading up to this time change. One idea - move the ‘Spring Forward/Fall Back’ to Friday night instead of Saturday, thus giving us an extra day to adjust. Another great proposal I read was to line up the schools’ spring breaks with the time change falling at the beginning. That would give students (and parents) a week to become acclimated.
Still, experts tell us, there are challenges to be faced each time we switch the clock back or forward.
Safety professionals plan for this day. They tell us there are more accidents and injuries on this day than on other days and, as a result, more days of lost work-time.
Heart attack rates also increase on the first day of ‘Spring Forward.’
So, the moral of this story is…enjoy the extra time outdoors, folks, but take care of yourself!
JG
(Source: safetytoolboxtalks.com)
Originally posted 3/12/2012
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