On Monday morning I will participate in a much-loved tradition — that of hurling my alarm clock across the room as it goes off a full hour earlier than it should.
Yes, this weekend we spring forward into Daylight Saving Time, my least favourite of the two time changes. I fall back with no problem.
But the spring forward? No. Just no.
Absolutely the only positive thing about the spring forward is that my car clock will be correct again. After much messing with it several time changes ago, I just decided to give up and wait for the time change to correct matters more organically.
Now, this year it appears that we will not be going back to standard time on November 1, as much of the world will.
British Columbia is embarking into a brave, new world of no more time changes.
It’s a complicated business this. For instance, the legislation introduced by the provincial government last fall would not require parts of the north and the Kootenays to change if they don’t want to.
Which, I’m all for free choice, but this looks like it will add confusion to an already slightly confusing situation.
Yes, we are on Mountain Time here in the Kootenays, and thus we jive with Alberta, which really is our go-to place (except for health care nowadays).
So if we choose to, we can opt out of staying on Daylight Time next fall, and stay synced with Alberta. Which, in a lot of ways, makes sense.
But…. it creates a lot of confusion with the Pacific Time Zone. Right now, and after we all spring forward, the rest of the province is still an hour behind us, time-wise.
Should the Kootenays (and they don’t have to do it as a geographical unit, another wrinkle we will get to in a minute) choose to fall back in November, we will essentially be Pacific Time in the fall/winter, and Mountain Time in the spring/summer.
That can cause some confusion. I’m not saying we won’t all adjust eventually — after all Creston went rogue years ago and seems to get along just fine — but it will require some mental gymnastics.
Time changes are a difficult concept for some people. Example, I have a very dear friend in Nova Scotia. She is a brilliant woman, and yet, if she bounds out of bed in the morning and has something she wants to say to me, she does not stop and consider time changes.
I cannot tell you how many times I have been texted or phoned at 4:30 in the morning.
And the added wrinkle about not requiring the Kootenays to follow the rest of the province is that individual municipalities can decide on their own.
Picture this. Kimberley decided to stick with Alberta time, and Cranbrook decided to stick with Vancouver time. If you work in Cranbrook, and live in Kimberley, you are going through a time change commuting to work. But not all year. Just in the spring/summer. In the fall/winter, we’d be the same.
I’m so confused now. The only thing I know for sure is at least my car clock will be correct. Or will it?
Carolyn Grant is the editor of the Kimberley Daily Bulletin.