Quality Time

Keep your Standard Time. It is of no use to me. Central Standard Time cuts the time I invest on my little friend, Evan. Someone with more sense please explain why the clocks are turned back an hour? We have no use for it in Benavides. Day or night there isn't much in the puebilto to look at, but at least with the sun hanging a bit longer in the afternoon you can avoid the pot holes and dead critters on the streets. The health-conscious who are faithful to their daily walks around and around at the high school track certainly wouldn't mind keeping Daylight Saving Time. There is no sense returning to Central Standard Time. More light after the workday is of greater benefit than more dark. Evan and I need to be physically out and about in the late afternoons and not forced indoors earlier by this silliness of moving the clock back an hour. The boy and I need to be outside as much as possible before he reaches an age when he no longer finds me useful or entertaining. He's the nearest thing to a physical trainer I have.

Keep your Standard Time. Encourage the kids in the pueblito to stay outside longer and run, jump, skip... hell, get them to walk to school. My kid brother was watching old videos of the crowds at Hemisfair 68 from forty-plus years ago and commented to me about the low plump factor in the kids and adults. We have become a less healthy people since those days. We just plain eat too much. I guess Lyndon Johhson's War on Poverty was won. There's lots of food on the tables of Amreica or on the TV trays, whatever the case may be. This last Halloween night was a parade of gorditos and gorditas in costume. The participants needed to have walked the trick-or-treat route instead of being chauffeured about. The situation is critical. Let's keep the extra hour of light and put it to good use chasing kids around in the playground. All will benefit.

I vote for more light in the afternoon. My little friend still finds monkey bars, see-saws and merry-go-rounds interesting -- no batteries required. These operate best under a sunlit sky. Evan still enjoys swinging back and forth and back and forth. How long will that last? Just give me quality time. Keep your Standard Time.