It’s time to switch the clocks again.  I think George W. Bush is to blame for making this date come earlier than ever.  I used to love Daylight Savings Time.  Now I think it’s kind of a pain in the ass, especially since it means things get started an hour earlier.  On the other hand, they also end an hour earlier the following week.

Back in the 1990s, I was in the Republic of Armenia.  In those days, Armenia still participated in changing the clocks twice a year.  For some very weird reason, the second year I was there, local officials forgot to have everybody change their clocks.  Consequently, in the dead of winter, it was still dark outside at 8:00am.  I remember having to walk to school mid morning in almost darkness.  I hated it.  Ever since then, I’ve been able to see quite clearly why changing the clocks might not be a good thing.  Armenia has since done away with clock changing.

Since those days, I’ve wondered if I was in the twilight zone or something, just imagining that the clocks weren’t changed.  But I was watching the news this morning and they were talking about how Stalin introduced the practice in the former Soviet Union in 1928.  And they also mentioned how the Russians would often forget to “fall back” in autumn.  Since Armenia was once part of the Soviet Union, I now know that they really did forget back in 1996… or was it 1995?  I actually think it was ’96, because I remember expecting them to do it and being surprised when they never did.

I know not everywhere in the United States does the clock changing thing.  I do enjoy having extra daylight in the evening.  Hell, when we lived in Germany, it would stay light until almost 10:00 at night!  That was fun!  Of course, in the winter, it was dark very early.  I remember being in Poland in November and things were going dark at about 3:30pm.

Anyhoo… here we go again.  When the clocks change, that means spring is on its way…  and I’ll have to break out the lawnmower.

Blue countries use Daylight Savings Time.  Orange means DST was once used but is no longer.  Red means the country never used DST and doesn’t today.