This is just my second winter in northwest Washington, and there is still so much that I have to learn about this place where we have chosen to live. My observation this year is that this is a place where spring fever comes very early in this place. Having said that, it is important to note that I’m very prone to spring fever every year. I don’t know how many times I have responded to the change of seasons with irrational behavior. The year our son was born, I planted three sets of tomatoes, having set out the first two sets before the frost had left us for good. And the early onset of spring fever this year may be related to the fact that I have a brand new grand niece, who is my sister’s first grandchild and is charming the socks off of all of us. I haven’t met her face to face yet, but the pictures are positively precious. And we are expecting a new grandchild soon - probably in the next couple of weeks. Maybe babies give me spring fever, or at least intensify my natural tendencies.

All of that aside, we are emerging from the dark here. The darkness is fading. You can feel it. We are emerging from the darkness. It isn’t an illusion. The days are really getting longer. Right here in Birch Bay, today is the first day that the official sunset will be after 5 pm. And sunrise is at 7:45, which means we get 9 hours and 14 minutes of sunlight today. Well, if you can describe fog and cloudy skies with the possibility that we might see the sun shining through some breaks in the clouds at mid afternoon as sunlight.

I have never noticed that I am affected by seasonal affective disorder, but there is no denying that I am experiencing a psychological lift from just a few more seconds of daylight each day. those seconds add up to minutes and the thing about being this far north is not only do we have a wider swing in the amount of sunshine we see, we have a more dramatic and quicker shift between the darkest and lightest days than any other place that I have lived. Living in “almost Canada” gives me a bit of a sense of what people who live in Canada, Alaska, and other more northern places experience.

It is a bit harder to be sure, but it seems that I am also beginning to stretch out my days just a bit, sleeping just a little less. Of course I still go to sleep and get up in the dark, but I’ve stayed up a bit later than usual the last few days and I’m rising as early or a bit earlier

Being aware of the sunlight keeps me aware of the clock. It is still dark at dinner time, but I’m beginning to look forward to the longer days when I feel like cooking outside because it is light out. We’ll still be eating dinner in the dark for more than a month. Daylight saving time doesn’t come until mid March.

The time of shifting to and from daylight saving time always prompts conversations about the shift back and forth. There is evidence that the twice-yearly shifts mess with body clocks and minds. There is strong evidence that it has an impact on highway safety. Accidents go up every time the shift occurs. Researchers believe it is because people are more likely to be sleep deprived and driving impaired by their sleepiness.

A couple of years ago, the Washington legislature passed a bill that was intended to make daylight saving time permanent. However, passing the bill wasn’t all that is required. It turns out that states need approval from the national Congress or permission from the U.S. Department of Transportation to gain an exemption from the annual shift in time. Although Washington has applied for both, neither has occurred.

This year the legislature will take up a bill that would make standard time in Washington permanent, “until congress authorizes states to observe daylight saving time year-round.”

It may just be me, but I don’t think I’d have much passion for the debate on this bill were I serving in the legislature. My representatives won’t be getting letters from me about the topic. I’ve been going along with the shift in time for so much of my life that I really don’t care that much. I’m a morning person, so I’m a bit less affected by the switch to daylight saving time than some of the other members of our family. I might notice it a bit the first day, but after that I’m good to go. It is a bit of a challenge when we fall back to standard time. I have a bit of a tendency for a week or so to head for bed a bit early. While others argue passionately for or against daylight saving time, I’m pretty neutral.

The one thing I like about the proposal to make daylight saving time permanent in Washington is that daylight saving time here puts us on the same clock as mountain standard time. Having lived almost all of my life on mountain time, except for parts of four years living in Chicago while attending school, and occasional trips to distant locations, it seems like going to permanent daylight saving time here in Washington puts me into the time zone to which I am most accustomed. The reality, however, is that other than the first few days of adjustment it doesn’t matter what the clock says. There is still a whole lot of dark in the winter and a whole lot of light in the summer here. I’m willing to accept that because there is a whole lot of change that occurs and I am delighted by the change in seasons.

Of course we can still get snow. We had snow in February last year. But for now, I’ll do my share of watching sunrises and sunsets and enjoying the increasing time between them.