Everyone get ready. Two weeks from today we’ll all need to “spring forward.” Don’t worry, you shouldn’t throw your back out or pull a hamstring. All you need to do is turn your clocks ahead one hour for daylight saving time.

You’re probably saying, “Wait, it’s too early. We’ve never had to change them this early in the year.”

Well, you do now. The Energy Policy Act passed in 2005 mandated that starting in 2007, daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. Since the mid-1980s, it had been the first Sunday of April until the last Sunday in October, but apparently that wasn’t enough daylight.

In 2007, we’ll have 238 of our 365 days as part of daylight saving time. It’s more standard than actual standard time. On a side note: For those thinking it’s daylight savings time, it’s singular, not plural.

I won’t get into whether or not daylight saving time is necessary. I don’t actually know if it saves energy. What I do know is that it causes people some confusion.

On top of that, this year technology experts are questioning if computers are going to be messed up because of the change occurring three weeks early. Have you made any post-March 11 or pre-Nov. 4 appointments in your computer’s calendar? I suggest you write them down on paper to make sure you’re not an hour late. If you end up with a computer time problem, go to the Web site for Microsoft or Apple to get the time correct.

As for the old-fashioned changing of the clocks, I recommend moving them forward before you go to bed that Saturday night. You don’t want to arrive at church that next morning in time to listen to the last 10 minutes of the pastor’s sermon. Then again, maybe it’s OK just that one Sunday morning.

While you are leaping forward, don’t forget to check all of the smoke detectors in your house. It’s easy. Press the button on the detector and cover your ears as best you can. If there’s an ear piercing noise, your detector is OK, although your ears may not be.

On a cursory glance, I found nine clocks in our house that will need to be fixed that Saturday night. Two others won’t be problems. The battery in the bathroom clock is dead, so it is forever 8:45. Hey, at least it’s right twice a day. And, the clock in the garage is off by three and a half hours. I kept changing it back, but it eventually gets off again.

Going to daylight saving time this early will make the sunrise about 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 11. For many people, the morning commute will get a bit darker. If the change remained the first Sunday in April, sunrise would be about 6:55 a.m.

Yet, seeing the sun in the morning is not the most important part of daylight saving time, at least not at my house. The sun won’t set that first night until about 7:13 p.m. I’m preparing myself to be tired from two children begging me to go on bike rides, play basketball, throw the football and anything else that comes to their minds.

Plus, more daylight in the evening means more time for me to start on outside projects, like the dog kennel, mowing the lawn and staining the deck.

Maybe it’ll rain until May.