The Saratoga Dog Park Chronicles
Nature calls, an outgoing stranger and the efficacies of Daylight Saving Time.
If you ever need someone to talk to, go to the Saratoga Dog Park. I’m serious—the people there are more ready to strike up a conversation than the girls in line for the Gaffney’s bathroom on a Saturday night. Admittedly, until recently, most of my interactions have been dog-related, or have at least started off that way: “And who’s this good boy?” "How old?” “Has Buster pooped yet?” (For real.) But earlier this week, as I was bent over picking up my sweet Nola’s you-know-what, defenseless, a gentleman walked over to me. “What do you think about Daylight Saving Time?” he asked.
To be honest, it confuses me. (I didn’t say that.) For one, I thought it was called Daylight Savings (with an s) Time. For two, I thought Daylight Saving Time was twice a year—once in March and once in November. And for three…like, why is it even a thing?
What I did say was “I’m not a fan.” What I meant was that I’m not a fan of the impending abomination that will move sunset back an hour from 5:41pm on this Saturday to 4:40pm on this Sunday. (Ben Stiller agrees.) But Daylight Saving (no s) Time is actually the eight months between mid-March and early November, when the Department of Transportation says we should have an extra hour of daylight after dinner. That extra hour is what I live for—you can’t fit in a post-work tennis match without it—so, actually, I am a fan of Daylight Saving Time.
I figured everyone was, until I pulled a dog-park-man on my boss and asked her out of the blue what she thought of DST. “I don’t understand it either,” she said, “but I don’t like waking up in the dark.” In other words, she prefers the alternative to Daylight Saving Time: Standard Time. That got me thinking—if we were to end the inane practice of turning our clocks one way in March and then back the other way in November (and 19 states, New York not included, actually want to), we’d have to decide if we want to observe Daylight Saving Time (when it’s light later in the day) or Standard Time (when it’s light earlier in the day), all year round. Here are some pros and cons to fully adopting DST, as those 19 states are looking to do, right here in Saratoga:
Pro: This winter, we’d actually be able to see the sleet hitting our faces as we leave the office at the end of the work day.
Con: We’d have to actually see the sleet hitting our faces.
Pro: If it’s light later, people will probably eat dinner later, and therefore Cantina would have to extend its happy hour by an hour…right?
Con: Getting up before sunrise to secure a track picnic table is tough.
Pro: Would we gain an hour of Chowderfest?
Con: There’s no hiding your dance moves at Dango’s under the cover of darkness when the darkness doesn’t come until long after your dance moves kick in.
Pro: Watching people try to parallel park on Broadway while you’re eating an al fresco dinner at Max London’s.
Con: People watching you try to parallel park on Broadway while they’re eating an al fresco dinner at Max London’s.
—Natalie
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