Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
This Saturday night before going to bed we’ll be springing our clocks forward as Daylight Saving Time begins for the next eight months.
OK in reality we’ll all just wait for our cell phones to change automatically in the middle of the night, but we will have to change watches and wall clocks. It might be a good idea to change the clocks in the office before leaving Friday night otherwise it is confusing when you arrive at work Monday at 7 a.m. The clocks say 6 a.m. and you think you could have gotten an extra hour of sleep.
As we get set to move our clocks, the Legislature is again considering legislation that would eventually keep us in the Daylight Saving Time mode. Rep. Dan Laursen of Park County has brought this legislation every year for the past several years.
His idea is that we spend eight of 12 months a year in DST so why not stay there the other four months.
Some like the idea, others think we should switch to standard time all the time, others say leave it alone.
What it comes down to is when do you want it to be lighter – in the evening or the mornings. It does not change the hours in a day – there are still just 24.
However, don’t get too excited, the bill, which has passed the House and is now awaiting a hearing in the Senate Education Committee, first must make it through the Senate and to the governor’s desk. But, wait, that’s not all. Even if Governor Mark Gordon signs it you’ll still be falling back an hour in November.
The legislation has conditions, specifically “Upon the enactment of a law similar to this act that authorizes an application for the same time zone change in Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado, the governor shall apply to the United States secretary of transportation for the state of Wyoming to be transferred to the zone designated as United States standard central time by the federal Standard Time Act of 1918.”
So even if Wyoming finally passes this legislation this year it could take years before it is ever enacted.
The concept is great, pick a time and stick with it. We citizens are pretty resilient, we can adjust to the daylight no matter if it is in the morning or night.
It’s not even the changing of the clocks that’s the issue, but changing times can impact one’s internal clocks. Some people are not impacted by the change at all, others it takes a day or two, or even a week for them to feel “normal” or feel rested.
But the biggest question is why? According to TimeAndDate.com Germany and Australia first began using it in 1916 to increase the amount of daylight in the evening. Some areas in Canada actually started changing clocks in 1908.
Times have changed since then. Technology has changed so now perhaps it is time to change as well and just pick a time daylight saving or standard, pick one and stick with it. We’ll adjust, just as we do every March and November. We’re good at adjusting.