Daylight saving time ends this Sunday

By Tom Chace

It's time for those who have been on daylight saving time D.S.T for the past 6-1/2 months (since April 6) to "fall back" to standard time.

If you want to be really accurate, then stay up until 2 a.m. (actually 1:59 a.m. if you want to be exactly accurate) this Sunday (October 26) and move all your clocks, watches, and digital readouts one hour back -- from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m.

That means one hour more sleep that night.

Farmers, cattle folk and dog walkers still work by the sundial and that doesn't get set back or ahead no matter what. Just try to fool Sandy or Miss Kitty.

Not all of us in this country go back to standard time; some never went to daylight saving time. Hawaii, for example, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

If you lived in Indiana, you might not have changed. Daylight saving only applies in the Eastern Time Zone of that state.

Arizona does not observe D.S.T., unless one lives in the Navajo Nation where they do participate in daylight saving time.

There is some confusion among bar owners and some restaurants that are directed by state law as to when they can serve and sell liquor. Next weekend, when the "last call" usually means the last sale is at 2 a.m, it will actually be 1 a.m.

The reason the 2 a.m. (1:59 a.m.) time to switch was chosen is that it minimizes disruption. It is late enough to minimally affect bars and restaurants and prevents "today" switching back to "yesterday" (if the change was made at, say, 1 a.m. or worse, midnight).

It is early enough so that the entire North American Continent has, by and large, switched by the dawning of a new day. The clock change occurs before early shift workers go to work and early churchgoers get to services.

For more information about daylight saving time/ standard time visit www.webexhibits.org. If you want to be up-to-the-second accurate when you change your chronometers, click on www.time.gov.