Germany: Time for the Next Time Change

When will the next time change take place? Well, it depends whether you are in a wormhole, in Western Europe, North America or elsewhere. You can be in any time zone you want.

Berlin, October 5th, 2022 (The Berlin Spectator) — Even though the European Union was going to get rid of those constant time changes we go through, they are still here. Obviously, the governments in the member states are dealing with more urgent issues right now, including existential ones. But, finally dumping the daylight saving time (or regular time) would have advantages.

Ungodly Hour

For now, we will have to put up with more time changes. The next big moment will arrive on October 30th, 2022, at 3:00 a.m.. Most of us will be sleeping like stones at this ungodly hour. While we will be enjoying our nightmares under the blanket, some contemporaries, Mr. and Mrs. Perfect, might actually get up to set their Ikea kitchen clock to the right time. At 3:00 a.m., they will have to turn it back to 2:00 a.m. before they return to bed to watch yet another episode of some stupid Netflix series.

Anyway, the next time change has some advantages: First of all, those nightmares of ours will take an hour longer, in theory. Secondly, appointments we wish we did not have, including the root canal treatment our dentist cannot wait to give us, will take place an hour later, meaning we will fear it for exactly 60 minutes longer before it finally happens.

Rubio’s Plan

Yes, there is another advantage: The time difference between Europe and North America will be changing for a week. On the old continent, we set our clocks back to regular time on October 30th, while the Canadians and their neighbors in the United States of America will be following suit on November 6th, 2022. This is confusing. Let’s say you want to sell your Tesla stocks, or buy some more of them, the moment Wall Street opens. So, you go online at 3:00 p.m. CET. Once you do, you might wonder what the hell is going on over there because absolutely nothing will be happening. That is because the time difference will be 7 hours, instead of the usual 6, from October 30th to November 6th. Great.

These are the complicated instructions.

Senator Marco Rubio from Florida got the Senate to approve his proposal to dump time changes for good and remain on summer time permanently. If enacted, this could happen in a year from now. The Europeans were going to take a similar step, but who has the time for time changes right now? Besides, there would have to be a decision on what time to adopt forever, regular time or dayight saving time. If the E.U. lets the countries decide what time they want to stick to, this could create a mess, meaning people would probably have to turn the time back and forth every 5 minutes when they travel from country to country in Europe.

Watches and Clocks

In Europe, including in the Federal Republic of Germany, we will have to continue dealing with time changes, at least for now. Of course, our technology will do it for us. But it is up to us to set our Rolex and kitchen clocks to the right time on October 30th. Sure, there are alternatives: One of them is to boycott the time change. Just show up for the root canal appointment an hour early. Or we can wait out this mess in a damned wormhole.