As you probably know by now, I am not the biggest fan of winter. And to have an “extra” day of it foist upon us every four years doesn’t make me feel any better about it. So that is why I am campaigning to have Leap Day moved out of February.
In case you didn’t know, Leap Day is put at the end of February because that was the last month of the original Julian calendar developed by the ancient Romans and adopted across most of the Western World. Now, of course, February is the second month of the calendar year–and “tacking on” an extra day doesn’t make as much sense.
However, I am not advocating for the addition of another day to the end of December either. The last thing we need is another day during “the holidays”. And again, that is another “extra day of winter”. Instead, what I am proposing is a June 31st.
Think about it, an “extra day” of summer–rather than another cold, dreary day of winter. (Yes, those in the Southern Hemisphere would get an “extra day” of winter–but the most-populated areas south of the equator are in temperate zones that don’t get nearly as cold as we do up here–and the majority of humans live in the Northern Hemisphere so, majority rules). June 31st would give us “another day” of golf, walks in the park, time at the beach, driving with the top down on the Jeep, biking on the trails and not having to shovel snow, salt ice or bundle up like we are about to take part in the Iditarod.
We have four years to get ready for the big switch, and if we start now printers will have plenty of time to change their calendar sheets, software companies can update their computer dates and cellphone makers can send us new versions of their operating systems to deal with the switch.
Now if we could just switch out of Presidential election years, so we get one less day of rhetoric and mudslinging………….
