Losing an Hour of Our Lives

I got out of bed at 6am today Saturday 12 March. There was time for a cup of tea and watch some of the English FA Cup soccer before taking my dog, Barney, for his morning walk. He’ll drive me crazy if he doesn’t get out in the morning.

I don’t really mind, the exercise does me good, and at that time of the morning the weather here in Las Vegas is unbeatable. It’s still a bit parky that time of the day, that’s chilly to our English speaking American friends. The sun was just rising over the houses warming one side of my face. The other side my ear can testify it was still cold. It’s okay it will warm up on the way back.

Tomorrow, Sunday the 13^th will be a different story. Our clocks leap forward one whole hour. Robbing us of an hour of our lives. It still beats me why Governments insist on this ridiculous time change.

It doesn’t matter what the time is, we still have same number of hours between sunrise;

and sunset.

In fact tomorrow will be at little longer than today.

I wonder how many people will miss appointments, flights, trains or other means of travel in the next few days. Or if not miss them, get there an hour early.

How about the programme “24 Hours”, if they did this programme the day the clocks leapt forward.

Keifer Sutherland wouldn’t have time to avert an impending disaster befalling New York. It is New York isn’t it? And even worse if they did the programme the day the clocks fell back we’d have an extra hour of boring advertisements.

I know the farmers and such will groan about the daylight hours. Get a life and adjust your timings. The bird’s dawn chorus is still at dawn. My dog still wants me up with the sunrise.

How about these facts from South Beach Diet:

You’ve got good reason to dread turning your clocks ahead this weekend, and it’s not just because you’ll wake up a littler groggier.

Research shows that losing an hour of sleep during the spring Daylight Saving Time change (time skips ahead one hour at 2 AM this Sunday, March 13) is a bigger deal than you might think. A 2008 New England Journal of Medicine study found that the incidence of heart attacks significantly increased in the three workdays following the switch. (Conversely, heart attack rates dipped in the fall when we gained an hour of sleep). According to the researchers, disruption in the body’s circadian rhythm may have taken a toll on heart health.

Further, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) warns that drowsy driving leads to nearly 17 percent of fatal crashes and 25 percent of car-accident-related deaths occur in low-light environments. If you’ve gotten used to a sunny morning commute, driving in a dimmer setting can compromise your alertness and safety.

How about this for a fact about the number “23”, tomorrow has 23 hours.

The 23 enigma refers to the belief that most incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, or some modification of the number 23, or a number related to the number 23.

This is, impending disasters, check it out on Wikipedia.

Sunday I still have to be up at 6am to take the dog out so I can be back to watch another English FA cup soccer game.

The UK doesn’t change until 27 March, when it’s officially European summertime. I hope someone reminds the UK weather.

To think all this bother was caused by the invention of the steam engine and train travel. Yep, so they could sort out train timetables. Before then every town and village in England chose their own time.

You could get on your horse and cart, trip along for a couple of miles to a different village and be in a different time. Just like Doctor Who.

Life was so easy then.

© John A. Bromley all rights reserved