The “New” Daylight Savings Time

You know the dates for daylight savings time have changed, don’t you? Instead of the SPRINGing forward an hour on the last Sunday in April and FALLing back the last Sunday in October, this year, and probably for at least several years it starts on the second Sunday of, March (March 11th) and ends the first Sunday of November (November 4.)

That is, assuming your in the United States and don’t live in the few states who ignore this whole business of time change.

Apparently Congress decided back in 2005 that adding four weeks of daylight savings time would save energy. Why they started this year instead of 2005 is beyond me. Seems if we went to daylight savings permanently, all year ‘round, we’d save even more energy, including the energy needed to figure it all out. But I digress.

There are some things to pay attention to besides your clock:

• Your computer’s clock – if you’ve got an older model, you may need to change it manually.
• The clock on your cell phone. In theory, your phone company should update it automatically, but it’s not certain their fixes will work for all phones.
• Electronic calendars, like Outlook should be double checked too, and it probably makes sense to confirm appointments by phone for the first week or so to make sure the other person is on the right time.
• If you do any time sensitive online financial transactions, you may want to make sure the timing is right.
• If you’re smart enough to program your video player to record favorite shows, make sure it’s got the right time.
• Making international calls? WebExhibits.org has a nifty chart that will help you sort that out.

Does this mean we get an extra hour to write? Only if we choose that; we could decide we want to play instead.

Write well and often,

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