Roosterhen Diaries: Reluctantly Springing Forward

We have survived the first day of Daylight Saving Time! I really don't know why we have to go through this ritual twice a year, and most of the reasons given to support DST turn out to be not convincing at all. For instance, it doesn't really save energy or electricity usage. A study published by the United States Department of Energy on the "Impact of Extended Daylight SavingTime on National Energy Consumption" in 2008 noted that, "The total electricity savings of Extended Daylight Saving Time were about 1.3 Tera Watt-hour (TWh). This corresponds to 0.5 percent per each day of Extended Daylight Saving Time, or 0.03 percent of electricity consumption over the year."

What's worse, it's probably not good for our health, either. In fact, a 2012 study published by the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported that “The Monday and Tuesday after moving the clocks ahead one hour in March is associated with a 10 percent increase in the risk of having a heart attack.” The fact that the same study mentioned that “The opposite is true when falling back in October. This risk decreases by about 10 percent.” is little consolation. There have also been reports of an increase in traffic accidents on the Monday following the time change as sleep deprived people climb behind the wheel to drive to work. I'm fortunate in not having to get up and drive to work on roads crowded with sleep-deprived people, thank goodness. Those of you who do have to drive to work on Monday morning, please be very careful out there.

One of the suggestions for coping with the time change is to go outside in the sunshine in the early morning. Thank goodness that although we had rain overnight the skies cleared this morning and we had a lovely sunny day. I didn't take any pics this morning- we headed out grocery shopping. Publix had lobster tails on sale, so we had lobster risotto for supper tonight, with strawberry shortcake for dessert. The risotto was a little disappointing- sort of bland. I haven't quite figured out what was missing, but something was. Maybe sleep-deprived people shouldn't cook, either!😉 I'm looking forward to being able to buy local sweet, juicy strawberries at the farmers market later- grocery store strawberries and tomatoes may look delicious, but they leave a lot to be desired in the taste department.

Tomorrow's weather forecast calls for more rain, then nighttime temperatures will plunge into the 20s for a couple of days. But today was a gift. Blue skies, a little nip in the air, and a sunset that while not spectacular, cast a golden glow on the bare tree limbs making them glow. Here are some of the pics from earlier this evening.

The dogwood blossoms are opening a little more each day:

We were afraid that the redbud tree was completely dead after it suffered some blows and fallen limbs during a winter storm, and Mr. G was saying we should probably cut it down, but it voiced its objection to that idea by putting out some pink flowers on its few intact branches: