Sunday, March 9, 2008

Is this Really March?

We awakened to 9 degrees this morning! Wow is it March 8th? Or is this just a method of punishing us for going to Texas for January and February. I knew it was cold outside as the furnace ran on Gas all night.

It changes from the heat pump, (electricity) to the gas burner at 30 degrees. I never heard the air conditioner unit outside at all, all night. Seemed that the gas furnace just ran and ran. The insulation in the Kansas City home, is not near what we had in the Des Moines house.

The R ratings say it is the same, but if this house was in Iowa the heat bill would be a thousand a month. I did put a storm door on the back door of the house as it is on the North side of the house. When the wind blows in the winter here, it was whistling right thru the kitchen.

We did warm up to about freezing during the afternoon, but are back down to 26 or so now at 11:30. Or is it 12:30? The wife tells me that we change time to summer hours tonight. Daylight Saving time. Not Savings time! Can not save daylight in a savings account. Or so I am told by these folks in an internet article.

Spelling and grammar

The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS Time.

Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Because of this, it would be more accurate to refer to DST as daylight-saving time. Similar examples would be a mind-expanding book or a man-eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an 's') flows more mellifluously off the tongue. Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries.

Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, and Daylight Time Shifting more accurate, but neither are politically desirable.


Now, we're so much smarter about these things. Har Har. So we change to summer time on a day that started at 9 degrees. Yup thats my idea of summer! So much so, that I think I will get out my woolen pajamas, with the drop down seat, and go to bed.

Most of the clocks are controlled by outside forces now days, so that the ritual of going around and changing them all is a thing of the past. Cell phone, automatic. Clocks in the cable TV boxes, automatic. Atomic clock on the wall, automatic. Still have to change the cars, and my wristwatch. That will be a good project for tomorrow.

For those of you that have to show up at work on Monday an hour early, in order for it to be the same time on the clock, you have my sympathy............. Oh, and the first thing you will have to do at work, is change the clock so it has the same time!

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