Happy New Year. Finally!!!

Although it won't be official until 2 a.m. Sunday, the New Year is dawning. Yep pholks, according to my calendar, the year doesn't start until Daylight Savings Time (DST). Longer hours of daylight are great. I don't care if the sun doesn't come up for another hour, because I'm either sleeping or fixing breakfast and the degree of darkness doesn't matter. I just like the hours of sunshine, even with clouds and maybe some fog for a few weeks longer. Even in the summertime when the temperature zips past the 100 degree mark and we are hunting for shade, an iced tea, a cold shower, a plunge in the pool or river or even a creek, life simply is better when the sun shines for more hours than darkness.

Spring and summer evenings are, and always have been, my thing.

For those who complain about losing that hour of sleep when we “Spring Ahead,” I don't really feel too sorry and suggest they hit the rack an hour earlier if they really have a problem. Night time is for sleeping, at least for us senior citizens. For those younger pholks who look at it the other way, they should be able to handle it without much problem. In my younger years, I worked and played hard while paying little, if any, attention to the hour. A ten-to-twelve-hour workday followed by at least six hours of whatever was not uncommon. Granted it was tough at times, but then so was my resolve – especially during DST, which in those days started several weeks later and ended several weeks earlier.

There are still lots of pholks who don't buy into the longer day thing. I can understand that and that's their right. I'm sure they have their reasons, but I don't care.

A friend, Ed, thinks the same way about the longer days and even suggests it be year around. I've wondered about that for years and can't make up my mind, even though I lean toward that idea. Ed says those who balk at the idea of DST probably still crave the Model A and dial telephones.

The only thing that really bothers me about these longer days and evenings is that I have been failing to take advantage of them. I long for them but don't take enough advantage. Since I consider the dawning of DST as the start of New Year, I guess it would naturally follow that New Year's resolutions would be timely. You might recall my stand on those things – I look at them as things to set oneself up for failure. I take the path of simply trying to improve situations, behavior or attitude adjustments. I plan to follow that plan this spring and summer, attending more Oaks games (I know they officially are the Rawhide, but I'm a holdout), maybe do a little barbequing and take some evening strolls around the block.

Maybe I'll sit outside, listening to baseball games on the radio when the Dodgers aren't on TV. I might even dig out one of those headset radios I stashed away somewhere and listen to the game during my stroll. Of course, I will have to get some new batteries since it's been quite a while since I used the darned things.

One more thing: If any of you pholks are having a New Year's party please let me know. I promise to behave and would be glad to bring some chocolate chip cookies, chips and dips or my special recipe beans with hamburger and sausage.

Miles can be reached at mshuper@valleyvoicenewspaper.com