When I was a kid in elementary school, we devoted a day or two to the calendar and how it got that way. We had to memorize the “30 Days Hath September (all the rest I can’t remember)” poem and do the knuckle trick.
I remember learning that Quintilis had 31 days and Sextilis had 30, but Caesar Augustus stole a day from February to give him the name number as Julius’s month. I remember feeling really resentful about that. Who did this guy think he was? Stealing calendar days! (And I was today years old when I learned that this is not true. Huh.) I put together a little plan to regularize the calendar and give us a straightforward 31/30 calendar. I didn’t have all of the kinks worked out but I was on the right track when the teacher, of course, shot my idea down.
Now that I am older I can appreciate that February is the month that they stole a day from. Seriously, it’s interminable. We could probably stand to give November an extra day, now that I think about it. February isn’t really using the 28th. It can have it back every four years, maybe.
My goodness, this is the last weekend in February and, holy cow, not only is it going to be interminable, it’s going to be *COLD* and interminable. I went out to use a broom to clear the sidewalk of the dry and depressing snow and about 2 minutes in my hands started hurting and by the time I was done, I couldn’t feel my pinkies.
I will say that huffing in frustration is better when you can see your breath.
Our D&D group will be getting together, though, and (according to the emails), everybody can make it for the first time since before Thanksgiving! So we’re going to be playing together as a group for the first time in a long while. That will be one of the things where time will stop moving oh-so-very slowly and speed up to normal time for a few hours.
Then we’ll be back to, ugh, February.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is “Zoomies”. Photo taken by Maribou.)
If it was possible to put myself in stasis from January 2 to April every year I would.
But in anticipation of Spring I think my son and I will go to the bike shop to get our rides tuned up for sunnier days ahead. He had an accident on the playground earlier this week which led to his first ever x-rays. He is fine but looks like he had a run in with Conor McGregor so we will see what kinds of looks we get.
Other than that it will be hunkering down. I saw Tool on Tuesday night when it was in the 60s and am considering it banked as my fun thing for the week.Report
We went from the 60’s to the 20’s over the course of 36 hours and from the 50’s to the 20’s over the course of 12.
It was unpleasant.Report
Mild down there in the Springs. We went from 56 to -2 in 20 hours.Report
Jeez. Was that a record?Report
Nope. We had a 61 or 62 degree swing back in 2020.Report
My experience in the Forest was more like Michael’s. I went out to have lunch wearing a t-shirt and by that afternoon that t-shirt was definitely not up to the task.Report
I once watched my car’s exterior thermometer reading drop 10 degrees in about 20 minutes, as a rain storm rolled in. Not my safest driving moment. I was just staring at the thing.Report
Outflow on the back side of a big plains thunderstorm can do 10 degrees in 10 minutes or less. Really odd to be out in the heat in the sunshine, and suddenly a cold wind starts to blow. As my daughter’s outdoor wedding ceremony was starting, an outflow wind came up and we went from 85 to 75 very quickly.Report
My birthday is Sunday and I HAD plans to go out shopping on Saturday, but who knows now? We might get freezing rain. Three days of classes this week were cancelled, first because the roads were icy, and then, I guess because it was cold this morning? My road was clear.
I admit I am far more childishly upset about maybe being stuck in for another day on Saturday than I should be, but it does feel very much like “I did the equivalent of locking myself in a tower for two years, first to ‘slow the spread’ and then to prevent myself from being exposed to a respiratory disease, and now we’re facing 30 seconds to midnight on the doomsday clock, and you’re telling me that some stupid ice is going to make it unsafe for me to go and do something even mildly enjoyable?”
I was a teen in the 1980s and I do not like reliving those feelings.
I do not like this timeline and I’m seriously wondering if powering up the LHC actually ended life as we knew it and this is all just Purgatory.Report
Does Waze or one of those other aps give real-time road conditions?
Go out. Treat yourself right, if only just a little. Even if it’s only safe enough to drive over to Wally World and pick up a Stouffer’s Lasagna and some kaiser rolls, do that.
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY!Report
I don’t know. I don’t know if Waze even works in my area, so few of those apps do, because we’re a black hole of nothing. I never even bothered to download it
The state “road conditions” looks dire but I think they haven’t updated. I’m gonna try tomorrow morning if it’s not freezing rain but I hate all of this so muchReport
Soon it will be March and things will get better.Report
I’m hiking! Missed a week in my 52-week challenge!!Report
February doesn’t count! Get back on the horse and March will be a continuation!Report
Granddaughter #3 arrived, so there’s that.Report
Congrats!Report