Springing ahead

Next Sunday at 2 a.m. the US will jump ahead to Daylight Saving Time, giving us one less hour of sleep for that day as well as darker mornings and brighter evenings. The darker mornings, however, should disappear after a bit as the sun's overhead journey lenghtens each day.

According to today's Globe, Malden Congressman Ed Markey is the force behind moving the change up three weeks. He also initiated a similar move, from late April to early April, in 1986. In theory, the switch saves energy and has some other benefits.

There will be some initial groaning at the early darkness, but we'll all have lots of early evening daylight to take advantage of. I guess that's a fair trade-off.

M1107

I don't remember hearing that Congress moved Daylight Savings Time up four weeks back in 2005, but the new alignment goes into effect this year in just over a month and there's a story in today's Globe that talks about the ramifications. It's no Y2K -- hell, Y2K was no Y2K -- but the new shift could cause some small glitches.