Now and Then  Take Back the Day

– By Peter Jovanovich –

That's not what most people did when daylight savings ended the last Saturday in October. Rather, many of us took this chronological opportunity to complain.

“I hate it when darkness comes so early.”

“Now, I feel that winter truly is at hand.”

“When the sun sets at 5 p.m. I get so depressed.”

Ryeites, think on the brighter side – literally. The sun's rising an hour earlier is actually a blessing of sorts. For example, walking your dog at first light – now 6 a.m. rather than 7 a.m. – means that dawn is much quieter as the road noise from I-95 is a low hum rather than a roar.  You'll discover that the birds' chirping sounds sweeter. If you walk along the Boat Basin, you can even hear the ripples from ducks as they paddle up Blind Brook.

The morning light, in this more peaceful pre-rush hour landscape, seems more affecting, if not sublime, at this earlier hour. Perhaps, that's because you're not dodging SUVs as you walk along Forest Avenue or any other thoroughfare in Rye. Indeed, nature's bounty shows more beautifully when fewer people are around.

Yes, it's darker at 5 p.m. now, but who says you have to still be at work then? Why subject yourselves to this quotidian tyranny of commuting in the dark? I want all of you Metro-North passengers, tomorrow morning, as you are listlessly swaying in that crowded, overheated train car, to get out of your seats and shout: “I'm not going to take it any more! And tomorrow afternoon, I want you to tell your boss at 4 p.m., “I'm out of here.”

You'll feel better, exhilarated in fact, to be taking back the day. And, if your boss gives you some grief for leaving work early, just reply, as you fling your office door shut behind you: “I'm a solar kind of guy.”