This is a leap year, and we usually enjoy leap years. They quadrennially bring presidential elections and summer Olympic competitions, which can be quite entertaining and sometimes have the players we root for winning. This year the coronavirus might cause the cancellation of both events, and we probably won’t be taking a rooting interest in the election even if it does come to pass, but we’ll hope for the best.
The problem with every leap year is that extra day of February. We’ve never understood why the extra day of the year is tacked on to end of February, when it could just as easily be added to July and August and give us an extra day of summer.
Who needs an extra day of February? The month is always cold and windy and sometimes snowy around here, the few days of 60 degree or so highs are just a tease, and although it’s not so dark as December and January it’s still took dark for our tastes, and Daylight Savings Time won’t arrive and bring its blissful extra hour of evening sunlight until March. By February all that strenuous holiday cheer from Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Year’s Day is long dissipated, and February is just a long slog on the way toward spring, which can be damp and chilly and scarily stormy around here.
The tradition delays the March bills and Tax Day for another 24 hours, which is nice, but that’s scant compensation for an elongated February. This one’s been especially desultory, what with that deadly coronavirus and the resulting stock market crash and the awfulness of the incumbent president and all of his potential rivals.
Ah, well. The Wichita State University still have an outside shot at getting in on college basketball’s March Madness, the New York Yankees and the rest of major league baseball are well into spring training, and summer will eventually arrive.
— Bud Norman
The Central Standard Times 