OK. I'm gonna complain about time changes, so you good folks in Saskatchewan can just sit back and chuckle into your beer while I go on a rant.
And, just for everyone's information, including mine, this helpful map.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-time-changes-us-canada-2026/
For YEARS, we have been subjected to twice-a-year-complaints about "having to change your clocks", "missing an hour's sleep", and blah, blah, blah. The BC government has raised the issue several times about staying on something (TBD) year round. Well, this year, they finally did it. On November 1st, our part of BC stayed on Daylight Time. So, we did not change our clocks back as we've been doing for years.
So. The consequences. First, the oven DID change back so now it's an hour late. The electric car DID change so now it's an hour late too - that has some unintended consequences like not starting to charge at 11 pm but rather waiting until midnight to start. Our cell phones DID remain on the same time (Pacific Daylight Time), so that's good. To fix the 2 original problems, I had to log into our router and change the time. Now understand that the router "said" it was on Pacific Daylight Time, but it was an hour late too, so now it's on Mountain Daylight (?) Time, which of course isn't right but it's what seems to work. Now the car and the oven are right. The car, of course, takes its cues from the router in the house. It refused to acknowledge the supposed GPS fix - god only knows where the GPS system thinks we are now.
Also, not that it matters much these days with restricted US border crossings, our closest border doesn't open until 10 am (which is 9 am in Idaho, because they DID change their clocks). And the markets (which are based on Eastern Time) now open at 7:30 am our time (whatever the hell IT is because I'm still wondering) and it's 3 hours to the time Nova Scotia is on in case I want to phone my sister, where it used to be 4 hours.
AND, if that weren't enough futzing around, it's pretty much pitch dark here until close to 7:30 pm (if not total, it will be soon). So the kids will be getting up and on the bus to school in the dark. Just like Saskatchewan where I remember the sun shining into my classroom at 9 am when it rose up past the Village Office. And all those students who were on the bus in the dark and sometimes getting home in the dark too. Of course, some of that is a consequence of living further north, but honestly, this perpetual whining about "changing our clocks" which seemed to be part of the reason why BC did what it did, in an era when everything pretty much changed by itself.... Jeezuz.
So this year, I have spent more time adjusting things than I've spent for decades. And someone is gonna call that progress? I don't think so.
There's also this thing called circadian rhythms. It seems our bodies like a hit of sunshine to wake itself up. There was a good interview on CBC's The Current on November 2nd. I'm going to listen to it again although it will probably just make me swear again. If you want to listen to it (about 20 minutes) you can find it here:
https://shrlnk.ca/s/ZDZgnZ3f
(Suitably changed to get around the FaceBook freedum censors.)
Side note - my Linux operating system seems to know where we are. No idea why or how. It just does. Would Microsoft have performed as well? Don't know and don't care.
Except for the half of my life when I lived in SK, I've had to "put up with" changing time 2x a year. Honestly, I always liked it. Light in the morning in winter. Light in the evening in summer. Best of both worlds.
Rant end.
