Early daylight savings tonight seems unlikely to have profound effect on most people’s lives

by Teresa Gubbins

With Daylight Savings Time coming three weeks early, as mandated by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, prospects seemed good for another round of Y2Kian hand-wringing and tongue-clucking over the potential havoc wreaked on our calendars by computer systems, Blackberry devices, microwave ovens, self-winding watches, and other technologically advanced gadgets whose inner clocks would require complicated re-programming.

But unlike Y2K, when people maniacally stocked up on bottled water and flashlights, and undertook home-canning projects in anticipation of a near apocalypse, the early Daylight Savings Time program that'll commence at 2 a.m. Sunday morning -- i.e., very late Saturday night -- appears to be causing barely a ripple of concern.

The bottled water aisle at the local supermarket seemed plentifully stocked, and there were rows of batteries as far as the eye could see. There've been only a smattering of national stories half-heartedly offering tips on how to deal with the premature onset of Daylight Savings Time. And with an insufficient bank of national stories to ape, lockstep coverage by local media is tepid (unlike this excellent story from Florida suggesting that the best way to counteract the effects of Daylight Savings Time is to go to bed early), with only CBS 11 willing to go out on a limb and suggest that Daylight Savings Time "may cause problems." (And it's not even a story generated by the local staff.)

Luckily, there's still one more day for dire warnings to be issued.