Daylight savings time

It is apparently that time of year again when people move their clocks backwards, or is it forwards.  Actually it's the hands of the clock that are moved, though if you are rearranging your furniture then you maybe are moving your clocks backwards, or forwards, or possibly even to the side.  How about trying the clock in a completely different room?  Would that make a difference?  Come to think of it, it's really only the time that is being moved, reset, changed ... well you know.  Which brings me back the incredible shifting time thingie - again.  I have never really understood the concept of daylight savings time.  As far as I know, no matter how early or late we start our day, it is still only 24 hours.  We can't add on extra hours, or take them off, but some bright button somewhere along the way thought this was a good idea.  Had to be a government employee who chronically late for work.  I never did get the whole "change the time" thing when I was growing up and had a lot more little grey cells to help with understanding this idea.  Still don't.  So now, if it's noon here, my son in western Canada is now twelve hour(s) behind me, but the rest of my family in Canada stay the same time, and my son in Europe is now less? more? behind me than before.  Are we adding or subtracting in the Spring?  What about in the fall (autumn to many who don't understand that fall and autumn are the same thing - synonyms if you wish)?  Am I adding an extra hour of darkness or subtracting it?  Can we do multiplication or division instead?  That's much easier than adding and subtracting and will make life so much more interesting, don't you think?  Which brings me, of course, to the msn advertisement to add birthdays to your contacts.  I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure my contacts don't need any more birthdays than they already have.  After all, how many times can you actually be born?  And wouldn't that add even more years to a person - in theory?  If you can add birthdays, can you also subtract them?  How about dividing them and handing them out like pieces of chocolate cake.  You know, share the goodies because if you eat the whole thing yourself, one of two things will happen - you'll either get incredibly sick from so much cake, or your waistline will expand in ways you really didn't want it to.  On the other hand, it might be a handy thing for getting even more gifts than you normally get.  Is this a case of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party where we can celebrate un-birthdays?  Is that what MSN meant?  I have no idea, but there it is.  Until next time.