time zone hijinks

Last night at 2 a.m. a lot of clocks turned back one hour, going from Daylight Saving Time back to Standard Time. But here in BC, the outgoing NDP government changed that back in March, stating that as of this November–which begins today–the province would switch to permanent DST, or what we would call simply, Pacific Time.

This gave an eight month heads-up to various applications, hardware, and other devices to adopt the change so there would be no shenanigans come November 1st.

But there are shenanigans.

From my own experience:

• My Garmin Forerunner 265 got it right, but still shows the sun rising and setting for Standard Time.
• My old Echo Show 5 got it right.
• My partner’s identical old Echo 5 rolled back an hour for some reason.
• Our microwave and countertop convection oven got it right because they are not connected to the internet, so the lack of change suited them just fine.
• Windows 11 happily rolled the time back an hour. I was wondering if Microsoft might have done some update for this, but I guess they have other priorities, like throwing money into the AI furnace.
• I haven’t tried either Linux install I have running right now (Mint and CachyOS and yes, I know, I really ought to pick one and stick to it and maybe one day I will. Further posts on this to come).

So, a mixed bag, but better than expected, because I would not have been surprised if every clock, digital or otherwise, had rolled back an hour, thinking nothing had changed.

(I also approve this change to permanent PDT)

Yesterday the provincial government announced it would be switching to permanent Daylight Saving Time–henceforth to be known as Pacific Time and that moving clocks forward an hour this coming weekend will be the last time British Columbians will do so.

I am both surprised and happy about this. Surprised because the government had taken the position of waiting for the western states to switch first, so the whole Pacific coast could be in sync. After years of waiting and nothing happening, I just assumed this was another promise that would never be fulfilled.

But then the BC government decided, six years after a survey indicated overwhelming support for the time change, to lead by example and hope others would follow. We join the Yukon, which made the switch two years ago.

Unsurprisingly, some people are unhappy and pretty much any discussion of the change will have these people popping up grousing about how we should have switched to permanent standard time, not daylight time, because that means more light in the morning rather than the evening. I get it. But please, just let people be happy and enjoy the moment (I stopped reading any discussions related to this).

For me, it’s great. Changing the clocks twice a year has always been awkward and weird, with little benefit to modern living, so I’m glad to see we’re getting rid of it. I prefer more light in the latter part of the day, even as I understand the arguments for having more in the morning. I’m counting this as a rare win for common sense in a year and time (ho ho) that seems largely devoid of it.

CBC News story: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-adopting-year-round-daylight-time-9.7111657

See title.

All I’ll say is the one-hour switch is not a huge thing for me to deal with. It’s only 60 minutes!

But, it would be nice if the BC government simply made it permanent instead of waiting for the now erratic, unreliable, ignorant, racist and untenable US government to take action first.

I mean, in an actual non-sarcastic sense, the first day of winter is good in that it means we have reached winter solstice and the shortest day of the year. Thereafter, the days start getting longer again as we begin the steady march toward March and the return of Daylight Saving Time, the One True Time.

Here’s hoping that all the respective west coast governments reach agreement on the above so that come November we don’t “fall back” into the pit of despair known as darkness by 4:15 p.m. I can live with mornings being darker in exchange for having more daylight during a time in which I can actually make use of it for myself.

Here’s to 2021 being brighter–at least in the afternoons.