U.S. Senate See Full Big Line

(D) J. Hickenlooper*

(R) Somebody

80%

20%

Governor See Full Big Line
(D) Phil Weiser

(D) Joe Neguse

(D) Jena Griswold

60%

60%

40%↓

Att. General See Full Big Line

(D) M. Dougherty

(D) Alexis King

(D) Brian Mason

40%

40%

30%

Sec. of State See Full Big Line
(D) A. Gonzalez

(D) George Stern

(R) Sheri Davis

50%↑

40%

30%

State Treasurer See Full Big Line

(D) Brianna Titone

(R) Kevin Grantham

(D) Jerry DiTullio

60%

30%

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) Somebody

90%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Somebody

90%

2%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd*

(D) Somebody

80%

40%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert*

(D) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank*

(D) Somebody

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(R) Gabe Evans*

(D) Manny Rutinel

(D) Yadira Caraveo

50%

40%↑

30%

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
November 06, 2011 06:11 PM UTC

Mountain Standard Time Open Thread

  • 38 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

If it were up to Sen. Greg Brophy, we’d be on Daylight Savings Time the whole year in Colorado–which is another way of saying we’d be on Central Standard Time half the year, or something like that. They draw time zone maps with a special notation for your state, which is kind of cool. Brophy says we should have a standard time that lets us enjoy matchless Colorado evenings. Who can argue with that? Rep. Ed Vigil, on behalf of farmers, proposed a bill to keep Colorado on Standard Time the whole year. Because farmers like to get to bed early.

As it turned out, federal law prevents Sen. Brophy’s approach, and while it apparently doesn’t prevent Rep. Vigil’s…well, neither bill passed the legislature as you know.

So we hope you set your clocks back last night despite the inconvenience–especially if you have lots of clocks–but at least it’s more mellow when you discover you have an extra hour in the fall, as opposed to the nasty surprise you sometimes get in the spring. You might even say the government took that hour from you in the spring, and is just now giving it back.

That’s actually pretty good “Tea Party” stuff, isn’t it? Sen. Brophy is free to use it next year.

Tweet
Share

Comments

38 thoughts on “Mountain Standard Time Open Thread”

  1. I’ve never understood all the complaining about the time change.  I love having long summer evenings; I love getting an extra hour on an autumn Sunday morning; I kinda hate having that hour taken away from me in the spring, but it’s worth it for the evening sunshine.  I don’t love the early darkness in the winter, but it’s winter and there’s nothing much to love about winter anyway, and I love getting up a little closer to dawn.  And it shakes things up a little.  

    2. Even better than Christmas. Extra hour of sleep–best gift ever, hands down.

      And now it is light out when I wake up for work, instead of trying to get motivated in the pitch dark. Sad to see it dark at 5 p.m. but the trade off is worth it to see the sun at 6:30 a.m. again.  

      1. and blind as a bat needing to drive after dark.

        I woke up this morning at 4:15 a.m.; talked myself into snooze mode for another 30 minutes.  About the time my internal alarm adjusts, it time to spring forward.

        Night driving has been out of the question for 20 years except once.  Almost ran me and my husband off the road trying to get him to the ER about a mile from our house.

        1. My mom is the same way and it’s gotten worse the last few years for her. She can’t really drive after dark at all anymore.

          I’m not crazy about driving at night up here because of all of the wildlife. It’s like a dodge and weave video game after dark, trying to avoid hitting something.

          I just get depressed when it’s dark out in the morning so for me, the trade off is well worth it to see sun in the morning and feel more motivated and less sad when I wake up.  

              1. Which is what I saw 2 weekends ago in a ditch south of San Luis, hooves in the air. Talk about a good waste of steak.

                I guess those Cattle Crossing Warning signs need to be taken seriously down there.  

  2. And it’s a giant PITA when writing programs – because there is an hour every year that occurs twice and another that doesn’t exist. (Never set nightly events on your computer to run between 1:00am and 3:00am – it won’t happen on night and will happen twice another.)

  3. should figure out that that means sending kids to school in utter dark. Sunrise wouldn’t be til about 8:00am in December and January. My bus to high school used to come at 7:05.

    2. You get dark one end or another.  Kids are coming home in the dark with the way things are now.

      Accident statistics show that both transitions are unsafe, and that people are sleep-deprived at both ends.

      I saw this picture recently: a Native American, with the caption, “Only the government would think that cutting one foot off the top of a blanket and sewing it back on the bottom would make a longer blanket.”

      2. Kids leave school at 3:30 at the latest. That’s an hour before sunset on December 21.

        And before you tell me about how it is further north, I lived in Seattle for eight years. School time is still safely between sunrise and sunset at that parallel.

        Dude, way to throw your credibility out the window. Patently false statements do that.

        1. They may leave the school at 3:30 but many of them spend 45-60 minutes on the bus, therefore getting home around 4:30.Ssunset is as early as 4:35 PM in Denver in December (Google is your friend).  I had kids in school.  They got home when it was just about dark.

          So, what were you saying about “credibility” again?

              1. The answer remains you. Because a) that’s likely the exception, not the rule; b) and even if it were pretty typical, 4:30 is still just before sunset according to your own cite. Finally, how much darkness would they be in in the morning if DST were in effect? Answer: a hell of a lot more than they are now. You want kids to walk in the dark to their morning bus stop for no good reason.

                The school day is centered at noon. It is so much more sensible to be on standard time in the dead of winter, when the days are shortest, that it takes a huge amount of selfishness to want it to be otherwise.

                Finally, I want you to put up or shut up: Let’s see some of these articles that demonstrate the sleep-deprivation is still a big deal come Monday morning. The switch happens early Sunday morning for a reason.

                1. “Body’s Clock Never Adjusts to Daylight Saving Time”  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/H…

                  “Daylight Savings – What Exactly are we Doing To Our Bodies?” http://airmedicalmiami.com/air…

                  I actually don’t care which time we use, but changing it twice a year is stupid and dangerous.

                  And, regarding the whole argument about school start times: that is an argument we should all be having with school administrations.  They start school that early generally because of athletic schedules, not for any academic reasons (other studies show that, for teenagers, a later start to the day would be greatly academically advantageous).

                  1. just sayin’

                    🙂

                    And for my kids, it’s easier to roust them from bed when it’s light out. On the other hand, my bike commute home is dark dark dark.

                    1. …most activities don’t actually require daylight 🙂

                      I think your experience with kids actually correlates well with the studies showing better academic achievement when students start their day later.

                      Basically, we need to stop letting industrial-age timeclock mentalities drive educational decisions like school start times.

                      If I were king of the world, I’d abolish DST and have teenagers start school at 10AM.  Among other things 🙂

                  2. Sound suspect to me. But thank you – I will check it out.

                    When it comes to child safety, I’m more concerned about younger kids, although I know that teens are capable of doing very stupid things. But they’re bigger and easier for drivers to see.

                    I would have been all over later start times when I was a teen. At least I could nap when I got home. Not participating in any extracurricular activities helped me out there.

                    And I agree with the “industrial-age” comment you made below, but the trend seems to be going the other way – longer school days to accommodate working parents. Both of my daughters are at school by 8:00, and they’re both quite young.

  4. Just think of how cool it would be if Colorado set a unique time zone. A combination between Pacific Time and Zulu time. Or Republican stupid time all the time.

  6. to a permanent daylight savings.  It will be total chaos for them to try and open their lifts at 9am.  DST will make it the equivalent of 8am.  Can you say frostbite?

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Gabe Evans
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

52 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!