Daylight Saving Time again. Again.

Here we go again: New Zealand clocks “sprang forward” last night. Now we get to be treated to several days (weeks?) of people complaining about it, about how tired they are, and how “they” should end the seasonal clock changes. And, nothing will happen until it all starts again when the clocks go back to NZ Standard Time on Sunday, April 2. This happens twice a year, like clockwork (you’re welcome).

I said last year that:

Changing the clock is easier than it used to be: Our electronic devices (computers, phones, tablets) change the time automatically. But our alarm clock doesn't nor do our two wall clocks, the oven’s clock or the microwave’s clock. I think the problem here isn’t than not enough clocks change automatically, it’s that we have too many clocks.

That’s still true, but our microwave was an hour off until last night. I don’t know if that’s because we never changed it from the last clock change, or if we re-set it incorrectly after the power was off. The fact that either one is equally plausible ought to be a bigger concern probably, but the oven clock is even farther out of whack (leading credence to the second possibility).

Today was a rainy day, and most of that was a driving rain. That rain ended by late afternoon, but the clouds didn’t clear. Even so, as evening began, I could see how late the daylight hung around, and even at 7:30 it was still at least somewhat light.

I still think it’s time to abandon the seasonal clock changes, but that won’t do anything to fix the zig zagging of timezones to accommodate various political divisions on the planet (political in the geographic sense—mostly). Even so, it certainly would go a long way toward reducing global confusion and making it at least a little bit easier to work out what time it is in another part of the world.

Of course, these days it’s also easier to work out what time it is in other places (and I put Chicago and New Zealand clocks on this blog a long time ago—I don’t know when, precisely, because if I ever mentioned it in a post, I couldn’t find it, and you know I wasted a lot of time looking…). All those electronic devices that change the time automatically also make it easy for me to check what time it is somewhere else.

So, our clocks have changed again. Again. And people will complain about that, tand then do it all again when the clock change again in April. It’s so certain, you could set your watch by it (you’re welcome again).

For those without devices that automatically tell the time in different places, I recommend timeanddate.com as an excellent site to work out what the time is any place in the world, to arrange a time for an online meeting with someone in another country, etc. Plus, it’s easy to remember the web address anywhere—and any time—in the world you find yourself. The image at the top of this post is a royalty-free photo by Dean Jenkins, and is available from morgueFile.