Since the time I woke up today and realized that it's the Leap Day (Feb 29th) of a Leap Year (2008) AND it's also a Friday, I figured there had to be something special and therefore rare about this day.
All of us fortunate enough to be gainfully employed, fancy ourselves as yet another Dilbert - martyred at the caprices and follies of supposedly evil Bosses, and are constantly praying for Friday to arrive just a little bit sooner than it did last week. Friday is our salvation and the raison d'etre in a gruelling work week.
So, a rare day, falling once every 4 years, falling on a day of the week that feels rarer than its nemesis - Monday (check your past bad memories - most would be on Mondays) has to be a rather rare and therefore precious combination. Still haven't gnawed your digits off? ;-)
Not being very fast with numbers, I set out with a calendar program looking at the day of the week that Feb 29th had occurred in the past:
2008 - Friday
2004 - Sunday
2000 - Tuesday
1996 - Thursday
1992 - Saturday
1988 - Monday
1984 - Wednesday
1980 - Friday
By this empirical analysis I figured out that this combination repeats itself every 28 years. A discovery, that when disclosed to my better half rather breathlessly, met with a cool "Yeah! Leap days occur every 4 years and Fridays once every 7 days. And 7x4 = 28". Probably a good reason wives are referred to as better halves.
So anyway, the length of the reasoning notwithstanding, it is still a special day, a combination that will occur next in 2036. So, enjoy yourselves :-)
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Well into 2008....
The new year is well underway. It has been a while since my carpals showed an urge to suffer any typing not directly related to our mutual survival. The past several weeks have either been cold or colder. Below a point, the temperature becomes just an irrelevant statistic, having no bearing on how cold you feel. Of course! one can only wax philosophic about the temperatures and such, when one needs bear it only for a few minutes at most in any day.
A Minnesota winter does have its own stark beauty. With snowflakes of a million shapes and sizes sashaying down from their heavenly abodes. The landscape devoid of all but the dullest colors, is washed over in white snow - as if to prepare a canvas for the riot of colors and life that is spring. One can really appreciate the liveliness of spring after a dull, gloomy winter.
But when it gets to the mid of February, one kind of starts getting impatient for spring and the ongoing sojourn of the platinum blonde - Jane Frost, begins to seem like a mini ice-age.
One begins to get skeptical about the existence of global warming and then hopes fervently for it to make its presence felt.
I still aver my original love for Autumn, but right now a juicy ripe strawberry melting in the mouth, with all its promise of warm - even hot, long summer days is all that I can think of.
After all, why endure an unpleasant reality when you can conjure up utopia ... and then improve upon it :-)
A Minnesota winter does have its own stark beauty. With snowflakes of a million shapes and sizes sashaying down from their heavenly abodes. The landscape devoid of all but the dullest colors, is washed over in white snow - as if to prepare a canvas for the riot of colors and life that is spring. One can really appreciate the liveliness of spring after a dull, gloomy winter.
But when it gets to the mid of February, one kind of starts getting impatient for spring and the ongoing sojourn of the platinum blonde - Jane Frost, begins to seem like a mini ice-age.
One begins to get skeptical about the existence of global warming and then hopes fervently for it to make its presence felt.
I still aver my original love for Autumn, but right now a juicy ripe strawberry melting in the mouth, with all its promise of warm - even hot, long summer days is all that I can think of.
After all, why endure an unpleasant reality when you can conjure up utopia ... and then improve upon it :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
