Thank you all for your insight...These are all good reasons, and I inconveniences that I wouldn't have thought of. I'm glad to finally get the other side of the story. I personally wish that they would just pick one time year-round and stick with it! In answer to Hoptown's questions: Most city dwellers would be considered late sleepers...I get up at 5:00am, and I would expect that most people around here and in Washington get up about an hour after me. Technically explained, the Government's Daylight Savings Plan is based on shifting the "wasted" light in the morning (while they're sleeping) to the evening, when they can clearly use the daylight more productively, spending that valuable time riding around in golf carts, drinking martinis and brainstorming about important new laws to pass. And the savings doesn't stop there. By not having to turn the headlights on, the golf carts obviously do not have to be re-charged nearly as often, resulting in a $1.2 billion* dollar savings in electricity annually! (*Adjusted for price-gouging.) So you can see it's a simple, yet brilliant plan. And, if the Government says it saves us money, we should believe them...They've never lied to us before, right? ;) Take care, all.

Ginny, we live in a climate of such extremes, both in day length and of course temperature. In years such as this, spring takes forever to arrive and we are forced to plant out late, getting the stuff in the ground just in time for the summer solstice. I love and cherish the long days, I just wish we could insert two more months of such extended day lenght, have things plateau out and hold there! I've never met a northerner that does not love the long long days of summer and hates to see them shorten. The weather has been beautiful and ideal for growing. Thankfully, there are few mosquitoes due to the dry weather and we don't have biting black flies to contend with .... there's the occasional horse and deer fly, but it's not till late summer that the nats and no see ems come to bother a person. I live in an area in which there seems to be few flying insects and it's rare to get a fly coming into the house. Terry

With a couple million miles unner my belt I concluded, as any truck driver does, that most driving "situations" fall into a relatively few typical catagories. One that comes to mind is drivers accelerating onto a freeway to freeway speed but then slowing down for a bit then resuming freeway speed again. Though momentarily discombooberating it becomes expected and therefore tolerable. In fact when it doesn't happen it is surprising. I have noticed this particular behavior is not as prevalent as years ago and have concluded it is because the older pre-freeway drivers have died off. I never could unnerstan this catagory till I found myself doing it one time. Here's what I found. I had accelerated my ancient velocipede to freeway entrance speed (a harrowing experience), entered the freeway then, feeling that I had accomplished a good thing ie done a good job, just relaxed which of course meant my foot came off the throttle a bit. Finally realizing my mistake I speeded back up. With this insight I found much greater tolerance for the situation. Please realize that years ago a 200hp truck getting slowed down might take a mile to get back up to speed. Today they are running 600hp-700hp or more; just have to lean on the pedal a bit harder so the situation is much less intolerable. Ultimately with enough miles and years you become quite a student of the human nature and behavior of drivers particularly 4 wheelers to say nothing of the highway patrol. Over the years I became less and less perturbed when the various situations developed, learned to take em in stride and indeed to forget em within a minute or two. Literally. =============================================================== An above post mentioned accidents where the people just sat. Now I had one time read that it was found that passengers in airplane landing crashes often survived the wreck but not the aftermath. Careful observation showed that, for example, 150 survived the landing but only 20-30 evacuated the plane. The majority just sat there. I truly believe it is the same with freeway wrecks. They survived the crash, ie did a good job, now they could relax; stop thinking. Possible fatal error of course. Driver training does not stress, "get the hell outa here." It should! It all comes down to mental conditioning, either by formal instruction or by a self analysis involving the process "if such and such happens just what should I do?" Having a "correct thing to do" in mind increases the chance you will do it; that is the reaction is at the ready. Figuring it out at the moment doesn't make it ie may not be a viable timely option. Well I could go on but I believe the best thing is to be aware of and be alert for various typical situtions, note the typical behavior, expect it and then be content to go along with it maddening as it might be because you can't really correct it. You will be a safer driver because you will be mentally comfortable. And as vstech says; "if they want to pass, let em." Both of you will be more mentally comfortable. Regardless of speed or conditions or percieved excesses a mentally comfortable driver is a relatively safer driver. ======================================================== And of course I note here on this thread, as usual, it is always the "other guy" who is the lame brain. None of the above posters has ever made a single solitary driving mistake of any kind. Have you? :-)

Ah, county not country Sorry, I need better glasses but, in my defense, that's an infrequently heard phrase for me. My intent was to edify, not insult. The only time I delete a comment is when it's wrong - I was wrong and will delete it. Thanks. As for me, drive in theaters were fun as a kid (especially when in high school and with a date!) and handy as an adventure when we had a houseful of kids. We haven't been back since the kids were younger and still living with us.