Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a bit of a schizophrenic week at the lake, at least weather-wise. Below zero windchills to sunny, warm, and in the 50’s and back again over the period of a few days. That’s New Hampshire in March. Not that we don’t have to worry about snowstorms. To the contrary, we’ve had some of our biggest snowstorms in March. Last year we had a heck of a Nor’easter in April that dumped a lot of heavy snow and knocked out power across the state. We were without power here at The Gulch for almost 2 days after that storm. Thank goodness we had the Official Weekend Pundit Generator which did a great job of keeping the lights on and the heat operating.

Ice fisherman have been reminded they need to remove their bob houses from the ice by April 1st. They also closed the ice runway in Alton Bay this past week, the only official ice runway in the Lower 48 recognized by the FAA. The ski areas are still quite busy though our local ski resort will close for the season on the first weekend of April regardless of the ski conditions as they start transitioning from winter operations to summer operations. (Yes, they are a two-and-a-half season resort covering summer, foliage - in fall, but it only lasts a few weeks - and winter.)

I have already received an e-mail from the boatyard that takes care of the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout – aka The Boat – about scheduling de-winterization and pre-launch prep, something I have already scheduled. (I’m hoping to put the boat back into the water during the second week of May, lake conditions permitting.)

However, all of that is still some weeks away as I still have huge snowbanks surrounding The Gulch to deal with. That, and getting used to Daylight Savings Time again.

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Speaking of Daylight Savings Time, I know more and more people are sick and tired of having to change their clocks twice a year. I know I am.

I live at the eastern extreme of the Eastern Time Zone, butting up against the Atlantic Time Zone, and during mid fall through mid winter the sun is generally gone by ~4pm. Here at The Gulch the sun disappears behind the hills to our southwest by 2pm. It’s even worse in eastern Maine.

It would work better for us if we could either remain in Daylight Savings Time year round or change from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Time Zone and remain in Standard Time year round.

Some people here have said that it would put children in danger if that was done because during the late fall and early winter months the kids would be going to school in the dark. That’s a specious argument because some of our school kids do that even if we’re in Standard Time. Previous experiments with year round DST – during the Nixon Administration during the Arab Oil Embargo back in the 70’s – showed that didn’t happen.

Reading the comments to the linked post saw a wide spread of opinions. One commenter questioned the polls and their conclusions:

"What we have is a bunch of polls with inconsistent results, meaning that the issue is likely divided three ways, with equal shares of the population wanting permanent DST, wanting permanent Standard Time, and wanting to keep things as they are."

This makes me wonder if when they selected those they would ask for their polls determined where within each time zone these folks lived. I'll bet depending upon where in their time zone they lived - eastern edge, mid-section, or western edge - the replies would be different. I live along the eastern edge of the Eastern Time Zone and while my polling was totally unscientific, most of the people who live here would prefer to stay in DST or jump over to the Atlantic Time Zone and remain in Standard Time year round. Those living in the middle or western edge might have different answers.

This subject comes up again and again every fall and late winter when we change the clocks. Congress has been dragging its feet in resolving this issue. We have heard a number of suggestions and opinions about how to solve this issue. I know I’d like this issue to be steeled once and for all. The same commenter as above provided this possible solution:

The problem is that those along the edges of some time zones find that Standard Time is problematic in the winter. Maybe it's time to shift some of the 'borders' of the time zones to eliminate that problem. That's why Maine and New Hampshire would rather be in the Atlantic Time Zone and remain in Standard Time year round rather than the Eastern Time Zone.

Indeed.

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Maybe they should have remembered the adage about being careful what they wish for because they just might get it.

In this case it’s the price and availability of natural gas here in New England, and specifically in Massachusetts. It seems Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey says there is an energy crisis because “it’s impossible to get natural gas.” However she chooses to ignore she’s one of the people who worked to make it difficult to get the needed natural gas by killing off the pipelines needed to get that natural gas into New England, specifically the Kinder Morgan pipeline. That pipeline would have brought in inexpensive domestic natural gas from Pennsylvania. Instead, a lot of the natural gas comes in by ship to the Everett Natural Gas Terminal near Boston, that natural gas coming from foreign sources – a lot of itcoming into the Everett Terminal from Trinidad and Tabago – natural gas that was bought at world market prices.

So Healey and her kindred made sure it was impossible to increase the natural gas supply and then complain that there isn’t enough natural gas to meet demand. They got what they wanted and then complain that they got what they wanted.

Talk about hypocrisy.

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I have to wonder where the conspiracy theorists are on this?

First, we see the wildfires sweeping through sections of LA, taking out about 12,000 homes and businesses. It will take years to rebuild those areas. Now we see something similar happening out on Long Island in the Hamptons, the wildfires threatening the homes of the middle class and wealthy alike.

Seeing what’s been happening in the aftermath of the LA fires, with some stating the large real estate investment corporations salivating at the prospect of being able to pick up expensive real estate cheap and redeveloping it with multimillion dollar homes, one has to wonder if the same thing will happen in the Hamptons should the wildfires destroy homes there, too. I would have to wonder if the same corporations will do the same thing in the Hamptons if the fires spread to take out homes?

Or maybe it’s all just one big coincidence…

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This doesn’t surprise me in the least.

CNN data reporter ‘shocked’ to see that American majority supports DOGE.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re getting some springlike weather over this coming week, the snowbanks will be melting away, and where Town Meeting season is starting.