Today is one of the worst days of the year. I could learn that I am coming into millions upon millions of dollars and today would still be terrible.

Why? Daylight savings time took effect in the United States.

I hate DST. HATE IT. Cannot stand it being sunny outside so late into the evening.

This idea that DST saves energy is a bunch of crap. (I promised I would try to stop using nasty language; therefore, I’m not using the word I would like.) If there is energy savings in DST, it is so minuscule one needs an electron microscope to find them.

Tomorrow morning, children in Russell and other communities across Kansas will be going to school in the dark. Why? Just to satisfy stupid Congressmen and Congresswomen who thought this was a great idea in 2005? To satisfy George W. Bush, who signed the stupid bill into law? To satisfy tens of millions misguided Americans who think DST is the bee’s knees, many of whom want full-year DST?

Driving home from Salina after an June evening of trivia at Buffalo Wild Wings is horrible. The sun is blinding all the way to Ellsworth, much the same way I often fight the sunrise between Salina and Topeka when I leave for Kansas City early in the morning.

There is a bill in the Kansas legislature which would end DST in the Sunflower State. GOOD. I hope it passes. I hope Governor Laura Kelly signs the bill if it passes, because DST is a raging fraud. If Johnson County is one hour behind the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro in the summer, SO WHAT? The television schedules are not going to change. Government offices and stores could adjust.

Kansas’ time zones are already out of whack. More counties should be on Mountain time than four (Sherman, Wallace, Greeley, Hamilton) which border Colorado. I’ll explain in another post.

Arizona, save for the northeastern corner of the state which is part of the Navajo nation, does not observe DST. In case you’re from Planet Lovetron or some other far away galaxy, Arizona is only slightly less hot than the surface of the sun in the summer. Imagine if the sun were staying up past 2200 on June nights. It would be 45 Celsius (113 Fahernheit) at 2200. Try sleeping with the sun beating down on you.

Some idiot legislators in Florida want to put the state on year-round DST. If that were to happen, most of the state, save for the western panhandle, would be ONE HOUR AHEAD of Eastern time during the summer. This would mean the absurdity of prime time not starting until 2100 in four major media markets: Jacksonville, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Miami and Orlando. Due to Florida’s low latitude, sunrise and sunset times might not be that outrageous, like they are in Colby, Kansas, but still would be way too late.

Florida doesn’t need DST, especially in areas south of Orlando. The length of sunshine per day is less and less the farther south you venture, to the point where it’s negligible in Key West.

Besides, that proposal violates the laws of the United States, which do not allow a state to use year-round DST. A state may exempt itself from DST and use standard time year-round, which is also the case in Hawaii in addition to most of Arizona, but not the other way around.

Enough ranting about DST. Thanks to that, it’s still two hours from full light, and I have to drive from Wichita to Russell. Nice.