Daylight Savings Time officially comes to a close at 2 a.m. tomorrow, meaning we’re supposed to set our clocks back an hour. Most folks do this before they go to bed, rather than waiting up (or worse, setting an alarm!) for that early-morning activity.

I have mixed feelings about this practice, as do most people I imagine.

On the one hand, it’s wonderful having extra daylight time in the Spring and Summer — time for outdoor activities when the weather is nice, time for commuting and running errands under safer conditions, time for kids to play outside and get good and tired so they sleep better. It kind of lengthens the time you have to wait for the July 4 fireworks shows to start, but that’s just a minor inconvenience.

With Winter’s shorter days, regular time means most of us awake in darkness and go to sleep in darkness, with just a few hours of real daylight sandwiched in between. That’s pretty difficult, unless you have one of those daylight-simulating lamps (which I don’t!). Then, too, with shorter hours of sunlight, the days don’t get very warm (and when the snows fall, there’s little chance of true melting).

I guess it’s all what you get used to. My Favorite Domer has only been living in South Bend for two months, but since returning to Central Time (for the ND vs. Washington State game in San Antonio), he’s complaining Central Time feels later than the clock shows. That’s always a problem with these twice-a-year time changes, too. You no sooner get used to living under one zone than you have to change to another.

Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it — What time is it really???