Daylight Savings Time

I’m not ready to fall back, but I have no choice.

Even with the extension of Daylight Savings Time, the move to more hours of darkness in the fall is something I continue to dread.

I could care less, pholks, about getting back that extra hour of sleep I supposedly lost in the spring. My body clock works better than any digital contraption and my waking up in the dark is controlled by things other than the clock.

I’m too old to be afraid of the dark. I just like sunlight more than I like darkness.

Although it sounds kind of stupid, but the first thoughts which pass through my mind when the time changes in the fall have to do with anticipation of spring and the opening of Major League spring training. This year’s World Series will have been over less than a week when the time changes this weekend and I will already have begun counting the days until baseballs start popping into mitts, pitchers begin testing their rested arms, batters start working on their swings and timing, and too darned many medium-level “stars” begin banking their millions.

Another disadvantage of regaining “that hour” this year is being forced to endure an extra 60 minutes of election campaign ads at all levels. Maybe somehow we could extend DST one more week in Presidential election years. Just a thought.

There are those who contend that this whole DST thing is of no use and we should simply junk the whole idea. I don’t go along with that simply because of how nice the long days are in late spring and all summer.

I don’t expect to lose any sleep over the whole issue nor do I really expect to gain any shut-eye over it either. This falling back thing just rubs me the wrong way.

SPEAKING OF BEING RUBBED THE WRONG WAY – There seems to be a lot of other pholks who feel that way about the Visalia Oaks becoming the Visalia Rawhide.

One of them is Alan George, a longtime friend of Valley Oaks, especially in their preservation and history of this area. He was one of the prime movers in supporting the team being renamed the Oaks.

He agrees with my contention that Rawhide has is not easily connected to Tulare County’s prodigious dairy industry, noting that perhaps the team ownership believes the name “Rawhide” will give potential fans “something to chew on.”

Another person involved in touting the many attractions throughout Tulare County feels the switch to “Rawhide” might not have been thoroughly thought out, citing Visalia’s fame as a tree city having some of the strongest tree protection ordinances in the nation. “Oak trees are very special to Visalia,” that person said, adding that the new team mascot, Tipper, is rather docile looking, apparent bull.

Miles can be reached at mshuper@valleyvoicenewspaper.com