A memo to the geniuses in Mercer County, North Dakota, who recently decided to move us to Central time. Or, a rant that will interest almost no one.
I admit that my title is melodramatic; my friends and family are already bored to death with hearing me rant about this. I thought that maybe if I told the whole world1 about it, I might finally be satisfied that I've said enough.2 So here goes.
If you divide the globe into twenty four longitudinal sections, you will find them to be 15° across (360/24=15). Each section would constitute one time zone, if they were strictly observed. Of course, those lines aren’t followed strictly, and naturally, it is more convenient and makes good sense to follow a nearby border or river, provided the border or river actually is near the proper longitude.
What makes no sense at all — or, as I am wont to say it, WHAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL — is moving the time zone border just because, that is, JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE LIVING NEAR THE LINE FREQUENTLY HAS TO CROSS IT AND DOESN'T LIKE HAVING TO THINK AS HE DOES IT. Listen folks, somebody has to live near the line. If we allow moving it for your convenience, then we'll have to move it for the next whiner's convenience, too. And if you've been paying any attention, you know that that's exactly what's been happening. Consequently, the line between the Central and Mountain time zones is jogging all over the place and moving so far west in most places that the easiest way to straighten the line might be to eliminate the Mountain time zone altogether.
But I'm not willing to do that. I want the time on my clock to have some relation to the position of the sun. Mapping the globe in 15° sections as described above, I discovered that we reside about 300 miles from the proper time line, in the time zone that is Greenwich Mean Time -7 hours, or what should be the Mountain time zone. The satelite image below will illustrate that this coincides accurately with solar time, or as I like to say, THE ACTUAL TIME AS DICTATED BY THE REVOLVING OF THE EARTH ACCORDING TO GOD’S DESIGN.
The image on the left shows the earth, with me sitting disgruntledly in the center, at noon, Mountain Standard time. The image on the right shows the same location at noon, Central Daylight Savings time.3 The Truth of the Matter is obvious, yet my fellow citizens still moved us to Central time.
Well, I suppose there is nothing I can do about it. You are all free to set your clocks two hours ahead of me and God, I will just have to live with it, and you will have to explain yourselves on Judgment Day. But my clock is set to Mountain Standard time. When I have to come out and interact with you, I will adjust the time in my head, because I can. It's not difficult. That is, it's not difficult for me; sorry about your mental handicap.4
1 Yes, the whole world reads this blog. At least one person from each continent, anyway.
2 Probably not.
3 Have I mentioned what I think of Daylight Savings time? Well . . . It doesn't actually save daylight any more than Jim Croce could actually save time in a bottle.
4 I hope you're not offended; I find it more charitable to assume inability than laziness, so I'm actually being kind.
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5 Comments:
#1 || 11·05·12··15:56 || rebecca
I found this very interesting, so you're probably right about it being boring to almost everyone.
My solar noon is now at 1:58pm. Once in a while I rant about the stupidity of that.
#2 || 11·05·12··18:11 || David Kjos
And then there are places like Newfoundland that are so particular that they set their clocks to GMT -3½.
Just to be really stubborn, I’m thinking of setting one clock in the house to exact solar time, which, if you’re wondering, is GMT -7:17:30 at my house.
#3 || 11·05·12··18:17 || neil
In Saskatchewan, Central Time extends all the way west to the Alberta border. It's why I left. That and the cold. But they don't buy into the Daylight Savings Time nonsense. That's why I stayed as long as I did.
#4 || 11·05·12··20:27 || David Kjos
I admire a man who can take a stand.
#5 || 11·05·13··06:48 || wayne
wouldn't say boring,, i read with interest!!