I’d like to dig up whoever thought of daylight savings time and beat him with the shovel. Some of us have body clocks that can’t be easily reset. More to the point: some of us have children whose body clocks can’t be easily reset.

I hate the fall change the most. Supposedly it means an extra hour of sleep. In our house, it means the guy who gets up freakishly early now gets up at a truly unholy hour. This is the third straight morning of Justin waking up at 4:30 a.m. Yes, he’s old enough that I don’t have to get up with him, and yes, I know he’ll adjust eventually (back to 5:30…can’t wait!) I just don’t see why we have to go through this.

Changing the clocks seems especially absurd to those of us who grew up in Saskatchewan, where they don’t follow this particular ritual. (Years ago, when the province was looking for a new slogan for its vehicle license plate, a friend of mine suggested Saskatchewan: Our Clocks Don’t Change. They settled on Saskatchewan: Land of Living Skies. In case anyone was unaware the place is flat and boring.)

Maybe the Chinese have it right. Not only does the country not observe daylight savings, but all of China is in the same time zone – so if it’s 3 p.m. in Shanghai, it’s also 3 p.m. in Hotan, a city 5,000 km further west. That would be like having Vancouver and Montreal on the same time. It might be mid-afternoon in one place and evening in the other, but the actual hour is the same. Huh.

Here’s another news flash: the number of daylight hours doesn’t change just because the clocks do. Winter days are short. That sucks no matter what you do to the time. Even once Justin starts “sleeping in” until 5:30, it will still be dark outside. Ugh.

Time to (yawn) get on with the day…