Hollister
– Springing forward and falling back can get pretty confusing,
as Hollister resident Danita Brigantino will attest.
Hollister – Springing forward and falling back can get pretty confusing, as Hollister resident Danita Brigantino will attest.
“Last year, we went to church … and our pastor warned us, ‘Now don’t forget to change your clocks,'” Brigantino said. “But the next week, he was the one who forgot, and he was late.”
For her part, Brigantino isn’t thrilled about the switch to daylight-saving time, which takes place Sunday, three weeks earlier than in years past.
“I don’t like losing another hour of sleep, but (my kids) are looking forward to it,” Brigantino said. After all, Brigantino’s daughter plays softball, and the time change gives her an extra hour of sunlight for practice in the evenings.
It’s not just Brigantino’s daughter taking advantage of the later sunsets. James Ferland, manager of the Bolado Park Golf Course, said he expects to see more people out in the afternoons and evenings after the change. The course will be offering discounted evening rates to cater to the after-work crowd, he said.
Ferland noted that days have been getting longer anyway, so the course is seeing more people hitting the greens already. In fact, Bolado Park ran out of golf carts last week.
“But we’ve got some new carts out here, so we’re rocking and rolling,” Ferland said.
In the past, everyone sprang forward – that means turning your clock ahead from 2am to 3am – on the first Sunday in April. But in 2005, Congress voted to move the time change to the second Sunday in March, starting this year.
In addition to beginning three weeks earlier, daylight-saving time is also going to end a week later. This year, you’ll need to turn your clocks back from 2am to 1am on the first Sunday in November.
According to information released by the California Energy Commission, increasing daylight-saving time will lead to substantial energy savings – exactly how much is uncertain – because people won’t need to turn their lights on until an hour later in the evening.
Daylight-saving time was first put into practice during World War I and World War II for that very reason.
Brigantino said she hopes the combination of the time change and warmer weather will lead to lower gas and electricity bills this month.
“That would be wonderful,” she said.
However, not everyone is happy about the change. Greg Renz, owner of AGCO Hay Company, said daylight-saving time is a bummer for farmers.
“We have to work with the sun,” Renz said. “(The change) sure isn’t for agriculturists.”
Renz said he’s usually out in the fields by sunrise. And despite the change, Renz still plans to work at 6am, even though that means he’ll need the help of electric lights.
“A lot of our employees aren’t going to be able to get started earlier than 7am,” Renz said.
The time change may also be a problem for Hollister’s many commuters. The day after the spring time change has been called “Black Monday,” because more drivers will be leaving home while it’s still dark.
The California Highway Patrol’s statistics show that accidents in unincorporated San Benito and South Santa Clara counties have increased that Monday in two of the last three years.
In 2006, for example, there were 10 collisions the Monday after daylight-saving time started, but only one accident the Monday before, and four accidents a week later.
Hollister resident John Rinck, who commutes to San Jose, said he leaves late enough that he doesn’t have to deal with the darkness. He’s happy the change starts earlier this year, because it increases the chances that he’ll actually see some sunlight during his drive home.
“It’s great that I can come home between 7 or 8 o’clock and it’s still bright outside,” Rinck said.
He added that it remains annoying to change his clocks twice a year.
“There’s always that one clock 20 feet up in the air,” he said. “You never change it, so it’s only correct half the year. … It seems like they’re slowly moving toward just keeping it the same time year-round, and that’s just fine with me.”
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or
ah*@fr***********.com
.
