By M. R. WILSON, TB Reporter

Sixty minutes of our lives disappear arbitrarily.

Pardon me if I do not “Spring Forward” today. My springing days (in any direction) are long gone, thank you very much.

If you tell me the time of an event, I’ll just write it an hour earlier on my calendar.

It’s an outrage to have this hour stolen from me. There is no comfort knowing I’ll get it back in November.

Death to Daylight Saving Time!

Sixty precious minutes of our lives disappeared arbitrarily at 2 a.m. today in an outmoded concept forced upon a population still wondering if DST actually saves energy. It does not. We must turn on our lights at one end of the day or another, unless we care to re-employ candlepower.

I’m certain the world being ON 24/7 has not escaped your notice.

Elementary school children trudge to their bus stops in abject darkness, their vigilant, bleary-eyed parents white-knuckle clutching coffee or Diet Pepsi or Red Bull. Teenagers are sullen.

Daylight Saving Time is dangerous to your health and wellbeing. You can find documentation during an Internet search. Go ahead. Find out about increased heart attacks, gazillions of dollars in lost productivity, more deadly car crashes, not to mention your own body clock’s mainspring going haywire for the two weeks it takes you to “adjust” your sleep patterns and every other bodily function.

I’m perfectly adjusted. Just don’t mess around with the knobs. Or my clocks. I wake most happily as the sun peeks through the bedroom blinds (and when a cat is not sitting on my chest like a gargoyle.)

I know. I know. Many of you LOVE Daylight Saving Time. Likewise, many of you are old enough to remember how it severely impacted your social life:  Drive-in theaters were not open until after 9 p.m. There can be no forgiveness.

The popularity of Daylight Saving Time in the United States is declining. Only 37 per cent of Americans saw the purpose of DST in 2013, down from 45% the previous year. (timeanddate.com) I applaud sensible states like Arizona (most of its area) and Hawaii that do not spring forward and fall back.

You can fact-check here if you so desire: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131101-when-does-daylight-savings-time-end-november-3-science/

If you are just as weary of all this nonsense as I am, sign a national petition to end DST: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/end-bi-annual-time-change

Take heart. Sane time keeping aka Standard Time returns November 6.

In the meantime, consider this Native American wisdom: “Only a white man would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of the blanket and have a bigger blanket.”

St. Petersburg | Events | Columns | The Sassy Sandpiper | Daylight Saving Time | TB Reporter

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