#MicroblogMondays: Turn back time

Cue the Cher memes: Saturday night/Sunday morning, we turned back time -- "fell back" one hour and reset our clocks and watches (the ones that don't do it automatically now, anyway), from daylight saving time to standard time. (Again.)  The twice-yearly time change has been part of my life for almost all of my life, and I honestly don't remember a time when we didn't have to change the clocks.  

(There actually was, briefly, such a time in my life:  We lived in Saskatchewan from 1963 to 1969, and they have stayed on standard time year round since 1966 -- but I was just 5 years old when they made the switch, and I have no recollection of this. This made things interesting when we moved back to Manitoba in 1969, to a somewhat isolated area that got its one TV channel -- a CBC affiliate -- from Yorkton, Saskatchewan.  The time change played havoc with our TV viewing habits. For example, for half of the year, when we were on the same standard time as Saskatchewan, the suppertime news broadcast would be at 6 PM, but in Manitoba, we'd see it at 7 PM when we changed the clocks!) (I think I have those time differences straight??)  

But more and more provinces are choosing to follow Saskatchewan's example and remain on one time year-round -- usually daylight time. My home province of Manitoba (along with Alberta and British Columbia) made that decision earlier this year, and did not change their clocks this weekend.  When we go to Manitoba at Christmastime, we won't have to change our watches when we land, because we'll be on the same time -- and I (hopefully!) won't be yawning when the nightly card game stretches past my usual Eastern time bedtime.  

Scientists actually prefer and recommend permanent standard time: it's more in keeping with our body's natural rhythms.  But most people prefer the extra hour of daylight later in the day -- at least, they seem to think they do, until it's implemented?? Several countries/regions have tried permanent daylight time in past (including the U.S., in the early 1970s), but abandoned the idea a few years later.  I think permanent standard time would likely be best too -- but I also think making a decision, one way or the other, would be preferable to going back & forth twice a year.  The Ontario government here has said it would consider implementing permanent daylight time -- but only if Quebec and New York did the same.  Quebec may be making the change soon -- so New York, we're waiting...!  

The adjustment period from one timeframe to another has never been my favourite time of year, and I was dreading the plunge into darkness at an earlier time in the afternoon/evening. When we were working, there were times in the winter when it was still dark as our train pulled into the station downtown, around 7:30 AM, and dark again when we left before 5. My cubicle didn't always have a window, and if I didn't make an effort to get outside or look out a window, I could go without seeing sunlight until the weekend!  

I'm a little melancholy about the time change this year for another reason. If I dislike the time change, my late mother -- who was never great about getting out of bed in the morning at the best of times! -- absolutely loathed it.  I always braced myself whenever I called her right around when the time was changing (either way!), because I knew I would have to listen to a litany of complaints, lol.  

I couldn't help but think of her, when I learned a couple of months ago that Manitoba wasn't going to change the clocks anymore:  "Mom, you left us too soon -- you're missing out!"  I like to think she would have been happy!  (Although I'm sure she would have eventually found something else to complain about...!) 

Did you turn back your clocks over the weekend?  How do you feel about time changes?  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.