The thing about DST

You can’t really live in Indiana (the part that’s in the Eastern time zone) and not have an opinion on daylight saving time. That’s because we Hoosiers have only recently jumped on the DST bandwagon. And here’s the thing–I LOVE DST when we are on vacation. What’s not to love about going for ice cream at 9pm in Northern Michigan in June, and it being light out? What’s not to love about the fact that it’s dark til close to 7am–that’s awesome when I’m on vacation and not going anywhere anyway.

It bites to actually have to be employed, and worse yet, have to have your kids on a schedule while observing DST. Why don’t people in New York complain about such things? Well, partially because it’s the norm there, and partially because they are in the eastern part of the time zone. The most eastern portion of any time zone gets fewer extremes when springing forward (sunrise/sunset times) than the western part (the opposite it true in the fall). The extremes are enough for the stat of Indiana to spend another $8.6 million in energy costs.

So here’s the thing–here in Indiana, I’m thinking it would make more sense for the whole state to be in the Central time zone, like our Chicagoland counterparts in the northern part of the state. Then I’d save this sort of post for “falling back”, when it gets dark at 4pm–you know, when we are on ‘standard time’. Which is actually for only about 4 months a year anymore, so much for standard.

Another reason why I’m glad I am OFF all summer long….

This morning’s newspaper

***Ok, the links aren’t working AT ALL…so if you’re interested, check the May 23rd Indianapolis Star— indystar.com!

This morning there were two articles in the paper that were interesting enough to me that I took the paper to work to read them in my “down” time. I thought y’all would find them interesting too…..

1. Adoptive Parents Maternity Leave Issues
This article is a good one about the discrimination families formed by adoption face. We are VERY lucky–hubby’s company granted him the same leave as all dads get (1 week or maybe 10 days? I don’t really remember….) as well as adoption reimbursement options. Even though we know my employer is unique (in oh-so-many-ways), I was able to cash in my sick day bank and ended up with 8 weeks paid as well. Such is not the case at all companies. The author also addresses the fact that many employees have to disclose that they are in fact adopting because the time table is so vague. My conversation with my boss went something like this, “We are officially ‘waiting’ at the adoption agency now. I may have a week’s notice, I may have a day’s notice, I may get called at 10am to go pick up my child. I may be matched three months beforehand and come home from the hospital empty handed. It may take up to two years. It may happen on the first day of school. That’s what I can tell you.” Crazy, but true, and oh-so-common.

2. Period-Stopping Birth Control Pill
Ok, the above link is to a conservative website, but it’ s the exact same article I read this morning in the local paper. This pill completely stops periods–except for random bleeding and spotting, which was apparently annoying enough for people to drop out of the study. Ok, here’s the thing–while I know no woman who looks forward to Aunt Flow’s visit every month, wouldn’t it freak you out to never have a period?? Sort of like the article said–how’d you ever guess if you were pregnant? Is it really healthy, for lack of a better term, for all of that “build up” to just hang there indefinitely? Granted, the hormones would control some of that, but still. Of course, I can totally see if you go anemic every month, have to miss work, etc because of excruciating cycles, but other than that, wouldn’t some of the other pills be a happier medium?? I wonder what Tampax thinks about all this!

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922-2007

Today has been a weird day on many levels. (more on that in a different post) I almost started crying when I heard on the radio, at 7:15 this morning that one of my favorite authors of all time passed away.

My favorites from Mr. Vonnegut include: Galapogos, Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, and Breakfast of Champions. What are some of yours??