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Daylight saving time (DST) came and went last weekend leaving us all a little confused, as usual, and raising a number of important questions.
Can we truly accelerate the onset of winter simply by adjusting our clock radios?
Do people get up earlier now in order to savour the extra morning hours, or is it because their beds are cold?
And having used the force to adjust our clocks, thus exposing us to the dark side, can we confirm a scientific link between DST and Star Wars?
DST is off course the practice of forwarding the clock an hour in summer so that come April we dont know whether its time to fly south for the doona, north for the flannos, or just man up in uggies and shorts.
While not exactly genuine time travel, winding the clock back an hour does throw the rhythms out just a bit, particularly if youre a chicken.
Sacrificing sunset hours by starting and leaving work an hour later, certainly encourages the feeling we are living in a darker world.
Mainly because it IS darker, which you notice when walking to the car in the afternoon.
Ironically, that all changes the moment you start driving into the newly angled the sun which now sets right into your retinas.
Altered light waves can affect moods, and while this new sun setting is certainly atmospheric, it can play havoc merging into traffic.
Note to self: Must wash windscreen.
Mercifully there have been times this week, as Debbie did downpour, that the windscreen was washed, revealing how poor visibility can be without the newly angled sunlight.
Second note to self: Must repair dodgy windscreen wiper.
As Easter approaches Im taking it all as a reminder that if you make it home in the new-found bedazzling gloom, youll be able to resurrect and do it all again tomorrow.
Of course there are no guarantees on that front, as the Reserve Bank chairman reminded us this week with his gloomy comments about unemployment.
Does daylight savings impact on economic outlook? Hard to say, although farmers complain it does make it that much harder to milk the cows.
To milk this subject matter further, the question has to be raised, does the end of daylight savings accelerate the time at which we have dinner?
Anecdotal evidence in our house suggests yes: dinner seems to be getting done way before the SBS News finishes, leaving us with no option but to go to the gym.
Normally going to the gym is a ritual avoided with the kind of intensity youd like to show at the gym.
Is this accelerated consumption of dinner actually comfort eating brought on by less light? Are we putting on our winter coats? Do ugg boots make us ravenous?
These and many more questions are thrown up in an effort to delay getting to the gym, capped off by the big one can we blame daylight savings?
I certainly do when I get to the gym and theres a bunch of other maladjusted light freaks who believe Im mucking around their routine on the treadmills and weight machine, not vice versa.
Mainly because Im not normally there are this time.
Good thing it gets me home that much earlier so I can chase up those extra blankies.