In case you haven’t noticed, Daylight Saving Time commenced Sunday. And in case you haven’t heard, a bipartisan group of US senators have introduced legislation to make DST permanent.

Let’s make one thing clear – I don’t have strong feelings on this subject. Sure, it’s no fun losing an hour in the spring, but it’s one day. And, yeah, it’s no fun when the sun starts setting so early in the day come winter, but, well, I’ll address that later.

Apparently, I am the only person in the galaxy who doesn’t care that much about what we refer to at the Goff Estate as the time change. For decades, however, I have endured countless complaints from people who believe changing clocks twice a year is such an arduous task that it should be included in the World’s Strongest Man competition.

Our devices, such as computers, cell phones, and DVRs, are smart enough to change their own clocks. So, what are we talking about? Changing the clock on a microwave? An oven? In a car? A watch? A couple wall clocks? How long could this possibly take?

What’s more, I get the inkling that some people believe if we switch to DST for keeps, the sun will literally grant us an additional hour of sunlight every day. It will not. You might want to sit down for this. But there will still be only 24 hours in the day. The days will still have the same amount of sunlight regardless of what time is displayed on all those clocks in your house.

So, this means that, if we switch to DST permanently, the sun will rise at its regular time, but it will be dark when you go to work or to school or to the gym or to the clock store.

I’m fine with this, just like I am fine with the sun setting at five in the winter, because the sun has to rise and set some time. And maybe you are fine with this as well. But if you are not, then be forewarned: If this bill does pass and DST becomes the law of the land, then I don’t want to hear any complaints from you. If you start whining about how the mornings are so dark and depressing, I will hit you and/or throw something at you.

If you start whining about how there’s no point in having an extra hour of sunlight in the evening in the winter if it’s going to be too cold to go outside and talk a walk, I will hit you twice and/or throw two somethings at you.

This post originally appeared in the Appalachian News-Express.

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