World Water Day

Over one billion people don't have access to clean, safe drinking water. Take a moment today to think about how your life would change if you were forced to live without water.

There are many ways our actions impact the amount of clean water available, from the way we are at the taps to purchase of products with more or less packaging, which uses water in its creation and threatens clean water supplies in its disposal.

Water. It matters.

introductions

boggle, meet tetris; tetris, boggle.

i can quit any time i want to.

midweek regroup

Yesterday was a whirlwind of one thing after another, seemingly hourly at times. Once the boys were safely at school, on time with lunches, i showered, cleaned up the house a bit and read. We had a nice quiet dinner of Paradise Burgers. Tiger told me all about his plans to open a comedy club. Dragon wants to bake the cakes for it and start a catering service out of it, "you know, where people can come and order Fancy Cakes."

They are so cool.

car news

i finally have charlotte the jeep back, and it feels ever so good. When i came out of fresh market yesterday, i noticed that someone sometime had crunched the front panel of the rental car. I called phillip and told him about it and his response was that the insurance will just have to cover it. thinking that was that, i turned the rental in today and left phillip's information about insurance. he now wants to keep the insurance money from the settlement that is supposed to cover body work on charlotte and instead use it for the deductble on the rental. whatever.

i feel as though i should be wearing Dragon's favorite tee shirt which reads "Future Millionaire. Can I borrow a dollar?"

The kitchen work is progressing. The new dishwasher is installed and the magnetic primer is up. The cabinets have been moved over and look great; I can't wait to see them with a fresh coat of paint.

I start physical therapy next week unless they have a cancellation sooner. i'm looking forward to it, since from top to bottom i feel all off-kilter.

pi day

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DST, revisited

i know i'm in the vast minority here, not being "sunnier" during Daylight Saving Time. Ben Franklin oringinally only conceived of it for a few months, and then in jest -- actually he was proposing that people change their habits (getting up earlier and going to bed earlier) rather than changing the clock. William Willett was the first to propose what we think of as DST, but had difficulty getting the brits to take him seriously.

The Germans had no problem with the idea, however odd it might have seemed, and adopted the measure during the first world war. The UK followed suit that same year (1916), and then two years later the US did as well, also codifying the time zones. The original DST in the US began in late March and lasted seven months during 1918 and 1919,but was repealed due to overwhelming unpopularity.

By 1966, some 100 million Americans were observing Daylight Saving Time based on their local laws and customs. Congress decided to step in and end the confusion, and established one pattern across the country. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S. Code Section 260a), signed into Public Law 89-387 on April 12, 1966, by President Lyndon Johnson, created Daylight Saving Time to begin on the last Sunday of April and to end on the last Sunday of October. Any State that wanted to be exempt from Daylight Saving Time could do so by passing a state law. [This proviso for allowing states to opt out of federal edicts is a trend we can discuss in another post.]

The oil embargo of 1973 left lots of US citizens thinking about energy, and a study was done showing that DST saved energy. I can't find a link to it, so take it as a random piece from my brain. I also remember that before DST was amended in 1986 to include the first sunday in April that the tourism industry lobbied for this move as well, citing evidence that people were more likely to spend more money on sunny evenings.

then we have the law from last year. yup, energy once again, and now we're back to that original seven months on thing. i'm glad the rest of you find it to be the sunny side of the street. for my part, i find it irksome.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed by Congress and then signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005. Under the new law, Daylight Saving Time begins three weeks earlier than previously, on the second Sunday in March. DST is extended by one week to the first Sunday in November. The new start and stop period begins March 2007.

The original House bill would have added two full months, one in the spring and another in the fall. According to some U.S. senators, farmers complained that a two-month extension could adversely affect livestock, and airline officials said it would have complicated scheduling of international flights. So, a compromise was worked out to start DST on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November.

Enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 will not alter the rights of the states and territories to choose not to observe Daylight Saving Time.

There's a book that is coming out regarding it, and there is enough hoo-hah surrouding the issue that I think i'll need a copy of Sieze the Daylight. It not only has a great title, it has a website, too.

Thanks to Cormac for the inspiration.

housework

The dishwasher not only isn't functioning anymore, but a leak upped the schedule of repairs. So the cool news is that I'm getting to redo quite a bit of the kitchen. That i didn't really have the money isn't the issue, of course. If I waited until then, I'd go to the grave with the award for longest lasting counters to survive the Second World War.

I'm considering it a birthday present to myself.