October 31 2020

Why? Why? Why? We have all asked the question, why do we turn the clocks back in the fall and ahead one hour in the spring? And depending where you lived the answer could have got could vary for a number of different reasons most of which were not really the true reason.

One example was what I learned as a kid … the time changed so that all the people that worked in offices and factories could enjoy more of the warm summer weather.

Now that was obvious was not the actual reason, it quite possibly could be an enjoyed side effect but is certainly not the reason.

I remember a local radio announcer saying it was done for the farmers, to give them more time to work in the fields … as if farmers ever really used clocks to decide when to go what to do, as most were up before sunrise and worked to sunset. No a calendar is more important time indicator to a farmer than most clocks.

So where did Daylight Savings Time come from? Any why?

George Hudson (a British born New Zealander) first proposed the idea of daylight saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation starting on April 30, 1916. Many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the 1970 energy crisis DST (Daylight Savings Time) is generally not observed near the equator, where sunrise and sunset times do not vary enough to justify it. Some countries observe it only in some regions; for example, parts of Australia observe it, while other parts do not. Only a minority of the world’s population uses DST; Asia and Africa generally do not observe it.

DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates and timings may be confusing.

Industrialized societies usually follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, and the coordination of mass transit, for example, usually remain constant year-round. In contrast, an agricultural society’s daily routines for work and personal conduct are more likely governed by the length of daylight hours and by solar time, which change seasonally because of the Earth’s axial tilt. North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater the further one moves away from the tropics.

By synchronously resetting all clocks in a region to one hour ahead of standard time, individuals who follow such a year-round schedule will wake an hour earlier than they would have otherwise; they will begin and complete daily work routines an hour earlier, and they will have available to them an extra hour of daylight after their workday activities. However, they will have one less hour of daylight at the start of each day, making the policy less practical during winter.

While the times of sunrise and sunset change at roughly equal rates as the seasons change, proponents of daylight saving time argue that most people prefer a greater increase in daylight hours after the typical “nine to five” workday. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, but the actual effect on overall energy use is heavily disputed.

The manipulation of time at higher latitudes (for example Alaska) has little impact on daily life, because the length of day and night changes more extremely throughout the seasons (in comparison to other latitudes), and thus sunrise and sunset times are significantly out of phase with standard working hours regardless of manipulations of the clock. DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. The effect also varies according to how far east or west the location is within its time zone, with locations farther east inside the time zone benefiting more from DST than locations farther west in the same time zone.

So Daylight Savings Time love it or hate it, is something we have been enduring for our lifetimes, gaining an hour, losing an hour, changing the clocks on all those electronic devices, at least our smart devices and computers automatically adjust the time.

I know as a traveler, time zones themselves add a special complexity when planning, I have often told about wintering in Quartzsite Arizona and playing golf in Blyth California only 20 kilometres away but was in a different time zone. Then add Daylight Savings Time and knowing that not every state (Arizona) or province will participate in DST, its even too much for my laptop to keep up with. At least my smartphone keeps up with the correct time in the areas we are traveling through … so I’m thinking the next great invention needs to be “Smart clocks”, we have atomic clocks that adjust themselves keep the correct time … I’m old enough to remember the VCR players and resetting those clocks … like seriously.

Thursday October 29th 2020

So this morning I open Facebook and this pops up on my memories from three years ago …

… and I think to myself, who would ever of thought how things could change so much and in so many ways?

So the park closed at five o’clock Tuesday with the actual last stragglers pulling out at 5:29, it was a crappy cold rainy day, not a great day to end to what has been a very difficult season. I know that a lot of people found the park to be their escape from the craziness that this pandemic has and continues to create.

As countries around the world are starting to lock down and close businesses to try to control the pandemic, the theme is consistent we just got too careless, we started to act like it was normal, quit wearing our masks, started to get together with too many people, and now we are being forced to back up to previous restrictions.

Here in Ontario the high risk areas are being restricted, no indoor dining, and restrictions on many other services, our case load is 800 to 1000 per day. And we still have the fools that won’t wear a mask, let’s just refer to them as special, you will hear them berating some employee for trying to enforce the stores rules, or saying how their rights are being infringed on … my suggestion would be that they are not nearly as special as they think.

In Canada we just surpassed 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus, that is a lot of people to have their lives cut short because of this pandemic, but unless we quite being so darn special, I’m afraid it’s going to be a long winter for a lot of people. It has always amazed me just how special so many people think they are, Ontario just had a few days with more than a thousand cases, amazing just about two weeks after our Canadian thanksgiving … this was the thanksgiving that our politicians asked us not to gather with friends and family. Then we have our special politician that attended a family event with more than forty people standing shoulder to shoulder for a photo, and just to show us all how special he is, he decided to post it on Facebook … now that’s real special … just saying

Wednesday – my my it was beautiful here yesterday with lots of sunshine but with sub freezing temperatures forecast in just a few days we had to winterize the whole park, north side, south side, laundry, washrooms, pool and pump room, which made for a very long, very busy day, with lots of walking as every tap on the park had to be turned on and off at least twice and even more in some areas, today will be the completion of winterizing, with items like the honey wagon, power washer and the like, then we can start into our fall projects, tree trimming, electric panels, and lots more weather permitting.

This is normally the week we head south for the winter, but obviously that is not happening this year, but I was so glad to hear that the States has turned the corner on the pandemic and are only finding sixty to seventy thousand new cases a day. Now that may seem like a lot to people like me but I was assured it was only because of the high volume of tests being performed. And as one very special person said if there wasn’t so much testing there wouldn’t be as many cases … I’m obviously not special enough to totally understand all the complexity of the coronavirus, but according to many people on Facebook these people were going to die anyway so to blame all these deaths on the coronavirus are just the liberals over exaggerating the failure of the present administration.

This is why I love Facebook, what ever you want to hear or read can be found an any given day, in fact it’s so smart it starts just bringing you information that is catered to your wants and desires … don’t think so just look for something you would never look for, a good example I looked up some items for the park, now I’m getting lots of ads and articles for those items … the thing that most don’t realize, any body can post whatever they want on the internet, it doesn’t have to be correct or true, so if reading anything on the internet try to keep this in mind.

But I do enjoy Facebook for the memories that pop up, we use the platform to keep family and friends informed, to share photos and information, and of course I love the entertainment of reading such special things that people repeat at facts … just saying.

To our Canadian friends hope for a mild winter…

And to our American friends get out and vote so maybe we can come south next winter…