El Horario de Verano

In the United States people are changing their clocks tonight and jumping one hour forward. Mexico does not change the time until April 5th. In Mexico, Daylight Saving Time (DST) has been observed since 1996 except that down here it is called "el horario de verano" or "the summer schedule". The U.S. government decided to change the DST schedule in 2007 for some very controversial expected benefits (mostly political). Since Mexico is much closer to the Equator the benefits are almost negligible and so to avoid feeling like the tail of the dog Mexico decided to leave things just as they were. That's okay except that it really plays havoc with international communications and trade for a few weeks.

So, if you live in Mexico don't touch that clock yet, my friend. Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00 a.m. local time on the first Sunday in April. On the last Sunday in October areas on Daylight Saving Time fall back to Standard Time. Sonora stays all year around on Mountain Standard Time because it has so many economic and social ties to Arizona which doesn't observer DST either (except for the Navajo Nation, in northeastern Arizona). Other areas of the U.S. that don't observe Daylight Saving Time are Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands. I noticed that Don Concho, the nice old guy who guards our block, doesn't observe any set schedule. I asked him about that and he told me that he doesn't own a watch and he doesn't have a clock in his house and he doesn't even have a television. He comes to work when he thinks the time is about right and he goes home when he feels that the day is over. He laughs at the fact that we try and control the sunlight. Right after he told me that I took off my watch and threw it in the bottom of my sock drawer. Don Concho is right!

By the way, It is NOT Daylight Savings time either. There's no "s" after Saving. It's Daylight Saving Time. Just so you know...