The one day of the year you don't have to worry about as much as every other day in the year

Friday has arrived and the end of the month to boot. Today is Leap Day. My parents had a neighbor who was born on Leap Day. He had a birthday every four years. I don't know how old he was when he passed away several years ago. You just take the number of years and divide by four.

The Writer's Almanac for today had an explanation of how we got the calendar we use today. It was quite complicated for an English major. The entry had a poem by W. H. Auden about the springing of love and the passing of years. If that poem was written on Leap Day, then Auden had a little less to worry about. He could consider the love of the young lovers, multiply it by the number of years passing them by, then divide by four. Surely their love could last that long.

The entry in the Writer's Almanac was interesting because of the measures which have been taken over the years to correct the manner in which we measure time, based on the changes of the moon and the stars. Apparently, every so often some monk, contemplating the stars and the moon would discover that we were losing days and post his findings to the pope. How these monks discovered this, I don't have a clue.

There again, Julius Caeser borrowed the Egyptian calendar and named one of the months after himself: July. Not to be outdone, Augustus Caesar decided to rename one of the months after himself: August. To ensure that he got equal billing, he borrowed a day from February and stuck it on to August. So now July and August both have thirty one days.

Initially, the calendar tinkerers were more concerned with making sure that the farmers knew when to plant and harvest. The farmers, being superstitious, wanted to know when would be the optimal time to plant and reap. The tinkerers developed calenders so we would know when everything was supposed to happen.

Apparently, some scientist, astronomer or monk discovered in the 1770's that we had too many days in the calendar and needed to adjust the calendar. So one year, they just took ten days out of October. You went to the bed on the fourth and woke up on the fifteenth. This made the bankers mad because they didn't know how much to charge for interest on their notes. Ultimately, they adjusted the calender to the present day calendar. Now we are so accurate that we don't miss days for thousands of years. And the bankers get all their interest. Thank God.

Its nice to know that when I am melting in the Summer heat of July or August, I can thank some Italian demi-god for the extra day of heat. Lets all go eat some pasta and drink an ice cream soda to Julius and Augustus.

Tomorrow will be March, unlike last year when today would be March. March is supposed to involve lions and lambs. Around here that means that just when the flowers start pushing their heads up, the front runs through and covers them with ice or snow or both. Dangerous month.

This weekend is supposed to be warmer and sunny. Kate is coming home tomorrow for Spring Break. Sunday we may go to Callaway. Hope it doesn't start raining for the fun of it.