A recent update to my Mac came down. It was for the change to daylight savings time[wiki], being that it has changed as of 2007.
I’ve got some top secret news which won’t be revealed to the general public until March 11, 2007. Unwary people will be getting a rude awakening. On that day, in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, people in most states of the U.S. will turn their clocks forward one hour at 2:00 a.m. to take advantage of longer daylight hours and reduced energy bills.
Previously, Daylight Savings Time was implemented on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday in October for participating states (Indiana, split between two time zones, didn’t’ participate). The passage of the Energy Act of 2005 now puts the end of daylight saving time to the first Sunday in November. In total, Americans will have about a month of additional daylight to get their chores done. The change is expected to advantage children who celebrate Halloween by ‘trick or treating’, and also to cut down on traffic accidents, many of which occur in the twilight drive-time hours. [associatedcontent]
Now, you know that there are going to be a core of people who have no clue that this has changed, and it’s probably the same group of people who forget to set their clocks one hour ahead when the changes happened before. Still, this is a problem that is going to affect a lot of people. Their schedules will be messed up, and it’s a good bet that a lot of folks will miss church on Sunday.
That little update that came down is the kicker, and some people are screaming the return of Y2K[wiki]. We all know what happened then, but it was kinda hard to miss. This? I’m not so sure that throngs of people are aware that when the change happens, their computers and other electronic gadgets that normally change on their own will have missed the memo[cnet]. Will they still show up to work late on Monday? That remains to be seen.
Still, another thing to worry about with the changing of the clocks. First you lose an hour of sleep, then you have to adjust to the change. When it’s time for you to go to bed, your internal clock says you’re not ready. So with a whole month to change that, how much more can we get screwed up?
By the way, this is your warning. Just doing my part to spread the word because Canada is apart of this as much as the U.S. made the switch.
I remember a little boy that once set the clocks back when he should have sprung forward. That was a fun day. At least now our computers are networked to be on time even if we aren’t. Or so I’ve been informed. We will be in IL that weekend. I’m sure your brother will reminisce about the times we were at church at the wrong time on any given year when everyone was at home in April and October. SBT at it’s best.