Sunday, March 08, 2020

Solar to Standard to Daylight Saving ....


The clocks advanced an hour overnight --- but I haven't, yet. So here's a photo of daffodils to mark the morning. They're not blooming quite yet in the south of Iowa, but these appeared later on during March of 2017 and we seem to be on that trajectory again.

I don't mind the shift, although it does require a day or two of adjustment, but prefer what might be loosely called "solar" time. My maternal grandfather was adamant about this and refused to acknowledge daylight saving time --- even though it meant he was rarely on time for anything during the daylight saving time season.

And actually, we're dealing these days with "standard" time rather than "solar" time. Were we still reliant on sundials, these ancient devices would show a notable difference in sun time between the shores of the Missouri to our west and the shores of the Mississippi to the east. I'm told the development of standard time, regularizing the hours within broad zones, was driven by the need to develop consistent train schedules.

It's now nearly 8 a.m. when 24 hours ago at this time it was only nearly 7 a.m. and I'm slightly confused, but that will pass.

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