Deep thoughts, smoke detectors

Last night my electricity went out for about two hours. After deciding to go to bed, and almost getting completely to sleep, I was woke up by the screeching sounds from the smoke/CO detectors once power was restored. So it was a great night of sleep.

I mentioned this today to a friend who said, "well at least you'll know when to reset your clocks", referring to the old theory that you should change your smoke detector batteries when you set the clock forward or backwards for Daylight Savings Time.

But then something struck me as odd. That advice was always given when DST went from mid-April to late October, so they were spread six months apart. However, since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed DST to mid-March to early November (for no other reason, it seems, than to benefit special interests involved in outdoor activities while letting kids wait for school buses in the dark), it's now a five & seven month spread.

One would hope that the batteries in a detector could make it to seven months. But, given how much the logic of changing your batteries with your clocks has been pushed over many years, if I was behind this change, I'd sure feel rotten if a smoke detector doesn't work in late October. Just a thought.