Have you noticed how dark it is in the
mornings these last few weeks? And cold? Can summer really be
over? Why am I never ready for this extreme change?
Most of the time, I am a morning person. I
don't have an alarm clock, so I usually get up in the morning
when I see a hint of light in the sky.
This is inconvenient in June when dawn
arrives at 4 am. In September, it works out fairly well. Dawn
coincides with a good time to start the day. But if I wait for
the sun to lighten the sky at the end of October, I've slept
in. Until now, of course.
Daylight savings time is gone. As of this
morning (Oct. 30), the sun rose an hour earlier than it did
yesterday. The change to "standard" time benefits morning
people and nighttime people equally. The morning people now
will enjoy some of that lovely, soft natural light streaming
into the house when
they get up. The nighttime people will get to
sleep an extra hour.
I always have to ask myself, though, why does
the time change matter to me?
I live in the forest, I work my own schedule,
I don't punch a clock, I don't even own a watch. Waking at dawn
and tucking in when it gets dark is very appealing to me.
Except at this latitude, it would mean sleeping less than six
hours in the summer and more than 16 in winter.
Maybe you don't notice the darkness so much
in the city. Being plugged in to the seemingly limitless
electrical grid means you can make your house bright as day
whenever you want. Solar power to produce lots of light in the
autumn falls short.
We do have warm and cosy kerosene lamps and
candles, which are lovely in the evening. but in the morning I
want something brighter. And that is why I like the sun, and
why I like the change back to standard time in October.
Of course, the down side of this time change
is that it is going to get darker an hour earlier each evening.
Suddenly the days seem a lot shorter. As we reach into
November, then December, the days will become very short
indeed. Maybe I should buy some more candles.
Viki Mather lives by a lake near Sudbury.
