I love Daylight Savings time.  To be specific I love Daylight Savings Time when it ends.  I look forward to having a 25 hour day.  I look forward to an extra hour that will not be claimed by my bosses, my wife, and my kidlets.  That extra hour is mine, mine, mine.

Most years I spend it catching up on sleep.  Considering that I was up a continuous 42 hours last week trying to master an alien computer system….I guess I need some extra shuteye.  Not since 1985, when I switched from a Commodore 64 to a Mac 512K, have I had so much to learn by taking on a Windows 95 computer.  It is an ugly job, but it has to be done.  As much as I love Apple, I think it is heading for the last round up.  Bill Gates has won.  We are all enslaved, but Bill Gates could not have my 25^th hour.  I slept like a rock.  My system as down and out.

Other people don’t spend their 25^th hour in such idle pursuits as extra r.e.m. sessions (rapid eye movement – you do this when you dream about taxes every night.)  Yes, some people actually spend their  25^th hour awake.  They don’t stay up until the official 2 A.M. changeover time to change all the clocks in their house, instead they stay awake an extra hour on Saturday or Sunday.  It is nice to have a choice.

It is amazing what people will decide to do with the extra hour.  Most are like me and just sleep away their sixty minutes.  Other folks around town were more adventurous.  John Mills actually enjoyed two extra hours.  He stayed up an hour later on Saturday since he knew he could sleep in later on Sunday, but then his rigid internal clock woke him up at the same biological time.  He could n’t sleep so he got up and enjoyed the whole Sunday paper before church.  Some folks like Sarah Burger of Northern Expressions, were so bsy they don’t even remember where their extra hour went.  Iron Joe at Ely Shoes told me it was “none of your damn business and you can quote me on that.”  Joe is so shy.  He was probably polishing shoes.

Bob Benito and Ruth Koski of Music Outfitters went to bed an hour later and enjoyed playing Trivial Pursuit.  Ann Rice of Vertins finished her second grade homework.  Actually, it was Kate, her daughter, who had the homework.  Finishing her homework meant Kate could go to the Halloween Party at the Moose Lodge.  Paul Pengal actually got out of his store and “turned back the clocks, sat back and watched Star Trek on TV.”

Bill Henning, who is the Director of the EADC, said he spent his time with the family.  Bill feels Daylight Savings Time is a plot to bring on winter earlier.  He notices that it gets dark earlier and that change makes it colder.  Bill just might have something there.  Do you think if we turned our clocks forward several hours we could bring back summer?

Janet Peacock, co-owner of Range Lock and Alarm, spent the whole hour just changing the VCR and all the clocks, including the computer clock.  So many clocks and so little time, I guess.

It is sad that we aren’t a more romantic race.  I wonder if France or Italy see a bump in the population nine months after Daylight Savings Time ends?  We on the Range usually save those romantic moments for blizzards.  Daylight Saving Time ends only once a year, but blizzards are much more common.

It is a shame we must wait another year to enjoy another 25 hour day.  Indeed, I would not mind a 25 hour Sunday every Sunday.  It is possible, all we have to do is turn back our clocks ten minutes every day, except on Sunday.  Every year you would have 52 hours to call your own.  The work week would be shortened.  You would still lose ten minutes on Saturday, but I would gladly give ten minutes of Saturday, for a whole hour on Sunday.

Call  your congressman and tell them to support the Time Reform Movement for 25 Hour Sundays.  Tell them this is more important than a balanced budget or lower taxes.  Go make a sign for your front yard with the initials BWCA.  Make it say “Balanced Waking Causes ‘appiness” or perhaps inscribe, “Backlogged Weeks Cause Comfort.”

Just think, this idea started right here in Ely.  A town known for activism.  Once again we lead the country in establishing a more civilized and humane life.  Wakers of the World Unite!  You have nothing to lose but your clocks.