Daylight Savings Time (DST), practiced around the world (in most countries, at least)--though, within the U.S., Arizona and Hawaii do not participate--happens twice a year. The proverbial "fall back" elates our inner child's yearning for that superfluous hour of sleep on Sunday morning while the "spring ahead" diminishes our youth by way of a brisk reminder that our jobs, and school, commence promptly one hour premature.
In Nevada, two Decembers ere, I took a spur-of-the-moment bus ride with a cluster of aged folk to the Hoover Dam, an amazing sight--get there if you haven't already--where I first pondered the somewhat tangible concept of DST.
"What's the connection between the Hoover Dam and DST?" you ask.
It's quite simple, really. If you've ever seen this movie, you'll understand the notion of natural curiosity. So, exerting usual behavior, I found myself walking toward the halfway point of the Dam. What drove me there? Well, the state line dividing Nevada and Arizona, of course. And since Arizona is a nonparticipant in DST, I just so happened to not only be standing in two places at once (my personal goal for the day), but in fact, I was in two entirely different locations at the same time, but in fact an hour apart! To this day I am utterly amused by my adventure.
By the way, the time of my visit just so happened to correspond with the beginnings of the Hoover Dam Bypass. Checkout the development and reason for this impressive infrastructure here.
Needless to say, the time differential between Nevada and Arizona caught me relatively off guard, and that is when I inquired about the controversy that is Daylight Savings. So, to my surprise, I found that the manipulation of time is not just a way for the government, or Mother Nature, to stick it to us, if you will, but it does, in fact, have some economic, health, and energy conservation benefits.
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