April 4, 2001

---

Springing ahead is one of my favorite things to do annually.

To me, and I suspect lots of other pholks, springing ahead means a lot more than just moving the clock one hour forward.

My religious values aside, I look forward to Daylight Savings Time more than Christmas or Easter. Even though I've never received a Daylight Savings Time present or a chocolate coated clock or watch, spring time change day is a sacred holiday to me. Even with half the time pieces in my home and car of the digital variety, I get a lot of satisfaction from advancing the hour. I even perform a little ceremony at 2 a.m. It is a little known fact that advancing the time at any hour except 2 a.m. can have serious consequences. There is scientific fact to back this up but trust me it is too complicated to try to explain in a simple, concise way. You have to trust me. I have horror stories about people who have set their clocks ahead at 10 p.m. on Saturday night or at 8 a.m. the next morning. The Discovery Channel and Unsolved Mysteries have even aired hour-long programs about this. Trust me. If you have experienced some unexpected and unexplained personal setbacks it might be the curse of Daylight Savings Time.

Unlike many others, I do not see the setting of the clocks ahead one hour as a loss of an hour sleep. To me the time change is a big gain. A plus. A good thing. A blessing. A great time to be alive.

I'll gladly give up a morning hour of light for more hours of light in the evenings. I usually wake up before daylight anyway and spend the first hour inside, showering, shaving, fixing breakfast and watching the tv news. The amount of light outside makes little difference.

But I have even more practical reasons to celebrate Daylight Savings Time including, but not limited to:

--The start of baseball season. I enjoy all sports but I live for baseball. Work or play goes better with a ball game on the radio. I even look forward to spring training in February knowing that once the major league teams open their training camps, Daylight Savings Time and the regular season can't be too far away.

--If baseball is starting that also means that college basketball's Final Four time is here along with professional hockey, basketball playoffs, the Masters Golf Tournament, the Kentucky Derby, stockcar races. Even the Indy 500 isn't too far off.

--Spring flowers with vivid colors and fresh, clean smells. The aroma of mowed lawns, the freshness of orange blossoms, lilacs, and honeysuckle.

--The lure of the barbecue grill, the mouth-watering aroma of charred streaks, burnt hotdogs and assorted hamburger smells.

--The arrival of my annual optimism that I will improve my golf game and finally break the 100 barrier. Even though the dreamed for event has yet to arrive I continue to keep the faith. Especially since I always turn the clocks ahead precisely at 2 a.m. on the right day. I cannot afford the possibility that failure to do so could curse my chance to shoot a great round of golf.

Those pholks, are my reasons for being so excited about losing an hour's sleep. I think it's one heck of a trade off. Hey, maybe we could do this every three of four months instead of just once a year.

Maybe we could start a gift-giving thing to mark each time change.Maybe we could paint our clocks bright colors and hide them and give prizes for the most found clocks or watches. It's just an idea.