Friday, February 29, 2008

February 29th and What We Should Do About It

Ah, February 29th, the most annoying date of the year. And not for the usual reason of "so-and-so is celebrating his 8th birthday today even though he was born in 1976." No, February 29th bugs me for other reasons:

1. It messes up March. Every year, it is usually so easy to know what day of the week a certain date will be in March because it follows the same pattern as February. If February 20th was a Wednesday, then March 20th will be a Wednesday. Except, for this year, where now all the days in March will be thrown off the usual pattern.
2. The weather almanac shows nothing for this date. I am a little obsessed with weather. I believe that if I couldn't be a professor, I might try to be a meteorologist. I love the weather. I usually like to look on my favorite weather website and see what the Almanac predicts for the upcoming days, what the averages are, and what we should expect. Well, February 29th has no almanac info. So I have had no way of knowing whether the weather will be warmer or colder than usual. This bugs me.
3. Our electric bill this month will have one additional day charged to our account. Same for the water bill.
4. For those of us who get paid on the last day of the month, we have to wait one extra day to receive our paycheck. (And of course that paycheck is less per day this year due to the extra day.)

If I were in charge of the world, on my first day in office, I would do away with this silly day. If we need to add 24 hours every 4 years to make sure the earth stays on proper orbit, I propose a better way. Basically, each year is short 6 hours. That's 30 minutes a month. So I propose:

1. Add one minute to everyday of the month for the first 30 days of each month. (Of course February screws this up having only 28 days, so take the extra two minutes and add it to January 31 and March 31.) This would make much less hassle. An extra minute of sleep per day, and extra minute to do all those things we didn't quite get done. I think this would be great. And it wouldn't mess things up like February 29th does. Or,

2. Once a month, add 30 minutes to a Saturday night, like we do during the time change. Could you imagine having an extra 30 minutes to sleep a month? This would be great.

If you think we should have more time to do things, then you should agree with me on this issue. Whether or not these two plans would throw off our days and nights, I am not sure - and it doesn't matter. What I do know is that we need a "change." We need change, and we are the ones to do this. I believe it is time to get rid of February 29th forever. So, in summary, the current February 29th has led to a history of confusion and misguided policy. I am for change (don't worry too much about the specifics of my plan, because I am for change and that is all that matters.) So will you please support me for ruler of the world?

4 comments:

Holly said...

this is genious.

Ben said...

I think you have too much time on your hands. I think the way it is works out just fine. the problems you have with the 29th are very minor compared to problems that would occur if you randomly threw in an extra 30 minutes to a night. at least an hour time change is easy for everyone to figure out. why do 30 minutes? why not make it 29 minutes and 40 seconds if that would make it more precise?

no change is necessary.

Jack said...

Ben,

Obviously this was tongue in cheek. Did you not catch the political slant on it? We're talking about change here, come on, get on the change-for-the-sake-of-change bandwagon

Ben said...

i stand by my comment that you have too much time on your hands