This Friday, I was cruising around the friendly confines of the Triangle Zone in my cab. It was about 7 a.m. and I was still shaking the cobwebs out of my head. Even the sun hadn't made its way over the mountain. Then it dawned on me (ha ha, hooray for puns) that in a week, we would experience the new and improved Daylight Savings Time. That's right. That special "spring forward" moment in time has come again, but thanks to the federal government, it's even earlier. Let me be one of the first to say "This Sucks!"

Most of the time, the federal government & I rarely cross paths. They have their tax cuts for the wealthy & wars on the third world, and I have my mixed drinks & books of fiction. Ninety percent of their policies don't directly affect me one way or another. Last year, the do-nothing Congress managed to pass an all-important bill that bumped daylight savings up a few weeks. What used to happen around Easter is now going to occur the day after St. Patrick's Day. It's bad enough people are going to be hungover all around the nation, but they are also going to lose another hour to boot. Genius! Brilliant!

This whole concept of DST came about to help out farmers, and since most of us don't really embrace an agrarian lifestyle in America, the old DST has just become a way to have an extra hour of sunlight after the work day is done.

The President said the move was made to save energy, but we all know that's a bunk statement. Something about less lights on and kilowatt hours used. It's sad when our current president tries to teach me anything. Really sad.

Let's put all that aside. Maybe the energy benefit will be great enough to stave off greenhouse emissions and blah, blah, blah. What I'm really focused on is TIME. That's what this is all about, right? It's not called Energy Saving Time. It's called Daylight Savings Time. Even that statement isn't really accurate. No time is saved. The sun is out for the same amount of time, except for its gradual natural expanding and contracting depending on the year. Most people don't even know what time it is! It's later than you think.

I will say I'm all for Daylight Savings Time. I like the sun shining later in the evening. It gives everyone a little more chance to get outdoors for some recreation, walking or what have you. That's nice, but I also like longer days after SPRING has come. No matter what any groundhog says, we will still have a week and a half of WINTER when the new Daylight Savings Time occurs. How much energy will be saved if are still using gas & oil to heat our houses during chilly times? If it's cold and breezy outside, I don't care how much sun there is late in the day. By the way, the phrase is Spring Forward, not Late Winter Forward. Must we jump the gun on everything?

It used to be so simple. First Spring, then Easter, then Daylight Savings. No problem. Well, those first couple days can be confusing, but still... what's so great about switching the hour so soon? We were doing fine with our man-made time concept before an awful Congress started tinkering with things. They couldn't figure out Social Security, they couldn't figure out Iraq, but by God, they got on top of that Daylight Savings issue.

It may not seem like a big thing to folks, and all in all, it probably isn't. But why is it that government finds no problem switching up the bizarre concepts we've come to accept and can't seem to come to a consensus on how to solve simple yet devastating issues like Poverty in America or freakin' New Orleans? Why do you have to mess with the common man and his basic concept of time?

The longer I live, the less I've come to count on the government for anything. I don't want a hand out. I don't want them to save me. I just want them to keep the trains running on time. I'm not even sure how much the federal government is in charge of that these days.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's a saying I've always held dear, and I never heard a whole lot of public outcry & protests over the old DST. All I know is that next week, it will be an hour later. It will still be winter. It will still way too early in the year to lose an hour.

Chris Jungle stopped wearing a watch in 7th grade.