Standard Daylight Time

I am probably in the minority when it comes to feelings of loathing in regards to DST, but here goes: thank goodness time is back on track. For those of you who work a nine to five job, I understand how you detest regular time, but for those of us who get to work at the butt crack of dawn, or earlier, this weekend's return to standard time is a welcome reprieve from hours and hours of darkness.

You see, I leave for work between 5:30 and 5:45 a.m. I like to pull into the parking lot by 6:10 to be seated at my desk by 6:15. This gives me an (unpaid) hour in which to do the work I don't have time for during my work day. That means I spend the first two and a half hours of my day in the dark. It's depressing, and it hurts like hell.

7:15 a.m. yard duty - just before the kids came through the gate.

With this weekend's time change, I will still wake up in the dark and drive in the dark, but at least the sun will start to make an appearance shortly after I get to work. And while I do feel for all of you nine to fivers out there, I hope you can appreciate my relief at no longer spending a good portion of my morning in the dark. While many of you have now lost your already diminishing light in the afternoon, I can still eke out a ride if I hurry. I leave work at 2:45 p.m. - 2:35 if no one is looking, which means I can be at the barn by 3:15. If I hurry, I can be tacked up by 3:45. That gives me just enough time for a quick 30 minute ride before the sun drops behind the trees at 4:30.

For the darkest days of winter, I chunk up the days, focusing on those where i can ride for more than 30 minutes. I get this Friday off - thank you to every Veteran out there for your service, and I get the week of November 21st off for Thanksgiving. Then I'll work for four dark weeks, rushing every afternoon to get some kind of a ride done during the week, but I get the two weeks after Christmas off which means I can again ride in the middle of day. By the time I return to work on January 9th, the sun will have already reached its most southern point here in the northern hemisphere, and the daylight will have had nearly three weeks to begin increasing.

The view from my back yard this weekend.

Through the rest of January and February, daylight hours will begin gaining rapidly, slightly more than a minute per day. By the end of February, the sun will set just before 6:00 p.m. which gives me plenty of time for an afternoon ride. On March 12, the date for Daylight Saving Time to begin anew in 2023, the return of pitch black mornings will return as we once again alter time.

Sadly, for me anyway, the U.S. Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, which would abolish clock changes in favor of permanent daylight saving time. So far, the U.S. House hasn't discussed it, nor has it been presented to the President for his signature. I can only pray that the House sees reason and lets the Act dry up and blow away. 

Until then, I am going to relish my morning sunshine. Sorry, not sorry.