Today I get to spend my savings. Yup, got an extra day. At my age I am grateful for anything extra, especially time. So today I feel a responsibility to use it wisely. I did purchase some paint and plan on painting the living room but do I want to use that extra day for that? I don't know seems like a bit of a waste. I mean I can paint any day now that I'm retired. The weather isn't good for any outdoor activities. It's too cold and windy today. Tomorrow is supposed to be a wonderful day. So what to do with this extra time?
This is my seventeenth leap year. I could just go with that and say I'm 17 but I don't want to be seventeen again. That was an in-between year. I already had a drivers license but not old enough to buy a beer. I was enlisted in the Navy, delayed entry program, but didn't go to boot camp until I was 18. I was 17 when I graduated from high school so that was a good thing. Still, taken in its' entirety 17 wasn't that great an age to be. Old enough to know better but still too young for some things! You know what I mean? Besides that, 1970 wasn't all that terrific a time. Over one hundred thousand people are protesting the Vietnam war in Washington DC. That was the scene in Forest Gump and I didn't agree with those protests. The Concorde made its' first flight that year and was going to revolutionize travel to Europe. It made its' last flight in 2003. The revolution is over. And the voting age was lowered to 18. In addition to those things Disco music started to be a thing and Disco stinks! Sorry to all of you that enjoy that Genre but I don't like it. Fact is we haven't had much good music since in my opinion. In 1971 the Day the Music died was released and I have to say I agree with Don Mclean, it did.
I expect not many people write personal checks anymore. I know I write very few. Mostly I look at my checkbook when I need to know my routing and account number, But if we did most of us would write the wrong date on this day. The next time we write this date we will have a new President. Only then will the politics ease up a bit. That's going to be the case no matter which party wins or loses in this election cycle. Yeah I'm thinking it will a long four years until the next leap year! I'll be 21 in leap years then and 21 is a pretty good age to be. Old enough but young enough. I'll have a " real " ID by then. Strange how they call a drivers license a real ID. You would have thought the government would have come up with some ID that they issued. Not everyone has a drivers license. Now you can get a state ID and I'm guessing that is what you get if you don't have a license in place of that as far as a real ID goes. Why don't we just have a federal ID? Doesn't have anything to do with a drivers license at all? What happens if you get your license suspended or revoked? Is your real ID suspended and revoked? Hmm, I don't know.
But I've got this extra day to do whatever I want with. Feels like I should treat myself to something special. I did save up for this after all. It's not daylight savings time which I spend every spring, jumping that clock ahead. No this takes four years of saving, or is it ignoring? I mean the earth is still revolving the time passing by and we ignore that until it adds up to a whole day. But for the sake of convenience we just decided 24 hours to a day and sixty minutes to an hour. Every four years we make a correction just to keep the calendar straight. As a result we have this extra day. What to do with it. I don't know, it's stressing me out. Maybe I should just go back to bed.
Why do we call it leap year? The actual term for adding time to the calendar is intercalation. We use leap year because each date on the calendar " leaps " a day. Christmas in 2014 was on a Thursday, 2015 fell on a Friday but in 2016 Christmas leaped over Saturday and occurred on a Sunday. It's a bit confusing when you look at like that but it's the only way we can keep Christmas from eventually winding up in July. And my birthday is in July and nothing is going to upstage that! But remember we don't add a leap day in years divisible by 100 but not by 400. 2000 was a leap year, 1700, 1800, 1900 were not. For future reference 2100 won't be either. So there, now you know.
This is my seventeenth leap year. I could just go with that and say I'm 17 but I don't want to be seventeen again. That was an in-between year. I already had a drivers license but not old enough to buy a beer. I was enlisted in the Navy, delayed entry program, but didn't go to boot camp until I was 18. I was 17 when I graduated from high school so that was a good thing. Still, taken in its' entirety 17 wasn't that great an age to be. Old enough to know better but still too young for some things! You know what I mean? Besides that, 1970 wasn't all that terrific a time. Over one hundred thousand people are protesting the Vietnam war in Washington DC. That was the scene in Forest Gump and I didn't agree with those protests. The Concorde made its' first flight that year and was going to revolutionize travel to Europe. It made its' last flight in 2003. The revolution is over. And the voting age was lowered to 18. In addition to those things Disco music started to be a thing and Disco stinks! Sorry to all of you that enjoy that Genre but I don't like it. Fact is we haven't had much good music since in my opinion. In 1971 the Day the Music died was released and I have to say I agree with Don Mclean, it did.
I expect not many people write personal checks anymore. I know I write very few. Mostly I look at my checkbook when I need to know my routing and account number, But if we did most of us would write the wrong date on this day. The next time we write this date we will have a new President. Only then will the politics ease up a bit. That's going to be the case no matter which party wins or loses in this election cycle. Yeah I'm thinking it will a long four years until the next leap year! I'll be 21 in leap years then and 21 is a pretty good age to be. Old enough but young enough. I'll have a " real " ID by then. Strange how they call a drivers license a real ID. You would have thought the government would have come up with some ID that they issued. Not everyone has a drivers license. Now you can get a state ID and I'm guessing that is what you get if you don't have a license in place of that as far as a real ID goes. Why don't we just have a federal ID? Doesn't have anything to do with a drivers license at all? What happens if you get your license suspended or revoked? Is your real ID suspended and revoked? Hmm, I don't know.
But I've got this extra day to do whatever I want with. Feels like I should treat myself to something special. I did save up for this after all. It's not daylight savings time which I spend every spring, jumping that clock ahead. No this takes four years of saving, or is it ignoring? I mean the earth is still revolving the time passing by and we ignore that until it adds up to a whole day. But for the sake of convenience we just decided 24 hours to a day and sixty minutes to an hour. Every four years we make a correction just to keep the calendar straight. As a result we have this extra day. What to do with it. I don't know, it's stressing me out. Maybe I should just go back to bed.
Why do we call it leap year? The actual term for adding time to the calendar is intercalation. We use leap year because each date on the calendar " leaps " a day. Christmas in 2014 was on a Thursday, 2015 fell on a Friday but in 2016 Christmas leaped over Saturday and occurred on a Sunday. It's a bit confusing when you look at like that but it's the only way we can keep Christmas from eventually winding up in July. And my birthday is in July and nothing is going to upstage that! But remember we don't add a leap day in years divisible by 100 but not by 400. 2000 was a leap year, 1700, 1800, 1900 were not. For future reference 2100 won't be either. So there, now you know.
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