Just 6 hours

. . . at least for the next couple of weeks.

On the second Sunday in March (that's today) Americans (well, all but Hawaiians and Arizonans) will move their clocks forward at the designated hour: 2:00 a.m. local standard time. Despite there being no real logic to this, they will still do it. Instead of getting up at 6:00 a.m., you will now get to sleep until 7:00 a.m.

Well, sort of.

The longest day here is 16 and a half hours. Not today, but in June. Less than 8 hours of night and some of that's dusk and dawn. It's also over 2 hours longer than the longest day back in Jefferson so does that hour "time change" really matter? With dawn before 5:00 a .m. and dusk after 10:00 p.m., I don't think so.

Europeans will wait until the last Sunday in March to do this same inane thing at the designated hour: 1:00 a.m. UTC and we'll once again be 7 hours ahead of everybody we know.

UTC? That's Coordinated Universal Time. I have no idea why it's not called CUT, but it's not. It's UTC. Not to be confused with GMT. Greenwich Mean Time.

UTC is the time standard by which all the world regulates time and date. Yeah, I thought it was Greenwich Mean Time too, but GMT is no longer the standard by which all time is measured. And it hasn't been for decades.

UTC is the time used for computers, etc. and is based on TAI.

TAI? That's International Atomic Time. Not sure why it's not called IAT, but it's not. It's TAI. TAI adds leap seconds at irregular intervals to compensate for the Earth's slowing rotation. Seems like we could just eliminate UTC and GMT and just go with TAI, but why further complicate an already complicated system?

I know we're supposed to be "saving daylight" and using less energy, but how many people in the world does this really work for? Are Arizonans and Hawaiians using more than their fair share of light bulbs? Alaskans must laugh at this concept of "saving daylight". I think they'd be glad to delete some of it during Daylight Savings Time. Their longest day is 3 hours longer than ours!

Of course, I know why we all need to be on the same page when it comes to time. Otherwise planes and trains and church bells would be in a mess. I do wonder sometimes why the bells on the church near our house ring at quarter after the hour. I guess they never got synced up with TAI, UTC, or GMT.