It is one of those rare days between the season when everything is promise.
Damn.
The clocks inside say 9:30, which means it's actually 10:30, because today we start Daylight Savings Time, or else we go off Daylight Savings Time, I forget which. Daylight Savings was explained to me in third grade along with long division and the exploration of the Hudson. At the time it seemed a perfectly rational idea, but now I can't remember exactly what the justification is. I'd have to ask a third grader, I guess.
The problem is I've lost an hour this morning, and an hour of an especially beautiful morning: an hour less of birdsong, an hour less of sunshine and cool breezes.
In the fall, when I set the clock back, Daylight Savings Time seemed like a pretty good deal, but now I realize how I've been rooked. Did I really need that extra hour when I got it? There were certain rainy days in February I now recall, and the realization they were an hour longer than they needed to be seems like a pretty raw deal, especially when I have to pay the hour back on a day like today.
I don't want to do away with Daylight Savings Time; I'm sure any third-grade teacher would tell me it has a valuable purpose, but why do we have to sacrifice an hour in the season when an hour is most precious. Therefore I suggest a new technique, instead of setting our clocks forward an hour, we set them twenty-three hours back. It would still be 10:38 instead of 9:38 as the clocks inside the house claim. All the third-grade teachers will still get to teach their students the fascinating rationale behind Daylight Saving, but instead of Sunday; it would be Saturday. I would have a full extra day like this to look forward to. A boon to mankind. I don't know whether this proposal should be addressed to the president, congress, or NASA, but let us work together to make it happen.
