Damselfly Lady's profileDamselfly LadyPhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
February 29 Leap Year Day2008 is a leap year, which means that it has 366 days instead of the usual 365 days that an ordinary year has. An extra day is added in a leap year—February 29—which is called an intercalary day or a leap day. Why is a Leap Year Necessary?Leap years are added to the calendar to keep it working properly. The 365 days of the annual calendar are meant to match up with the solar year. A solar year is the time it takes the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun—about one year. But the actual time it takes for the Earth to travel around the Sun is in fact a little longer than that—about 365¼ days (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, to be precise). So the calendar and the solar year don't completely match—the calendar year is a touch shorter than the solar year. It may not seem like much of a difference, but after a few years those extra quarter days in the solar year begin to add up. After four years, for example, the four extra quarter days would make the calendar fall behind the solar year by about a day. Over the course of a century, the difference between the solar year and the calendar year would become 25 days! Instead of summer beginning in June, for example, it wouldn't start until nearly a month later, in July. As every kid looking forward to summer vacation knows—calendar or no calendar—that's way too late! So every four years a leap day is added to the calendar to allow it to catch up to the solar year. A Quick History LessonThe Egyptians were the first to come up with the idea of adding a leap day once every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the solar year. Later, the Romans adopted this solution for their calendar, and they became the first to designate February 29 as the leap day. But Wait! It's Not Quite that Simple!The math seems to work out beautifully when you add an extra day to the calendar every four years to compensate for the extra quarter of a day in the solar year. As we said earlier, however, the solar year is just about 365 ¼ days long—but not exactly! The exact length of a solar year is actually 11 minutes and 14 seconds less than 365 ¼ days. That means that even if you add a leap day every four years, the calendar would still overshoot the solar year by a little bit—11 minutes and 14 seconds per year. These minutes and seconds really start to add up: after 128 years, the calendar would gain an entire extra day. So, the leap year rule, "add a leap year every four years" was a good rule, but not good enough! Calendar Correction, Part IITo rectify the situation, the creators of our calendar (the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582) decided to omit leap years three times every four hundred years. This would shorten the calendar every so often and rid it of the annual excess of 11 minutes and 14 seconds. So in addition to the rule that a leap year occurs every four years, a new rule was added: a century year is not a leap year unless it is evenly divisible by 400. This rule manages to eliminate three leap years every few hundred years. It's Smooth Sailing for the Next 3,300 YearsThis ingenious correction worked beautifully in bringing the calendar and the solar year in harmony, pretty much eliminating those pesky extra 11 minutes and 14 seconds. Now the calendar year and the solar year are just about a half a minute off. At that rate, it takes 3,300 years for the calendar year and solar year to diverge by a day. February 22 Emily DickinsonLovely;
You have got to see this. Truly Amazing. Turn up the sound!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY SISMy sister's birthday was on the 17th, so this is a little late. How old you ask....hmmmmmm...let's just say she was born in 1961...you do the math!
I love meatloaf, so here is a little sample today.
February 20 WednesdayLetter from one 'Angry Woman'
Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania ?
When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured: I don't care. When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank: I don't care. When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed 'special' food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being 'mishandled,' you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don't care. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom. February 14 Thursday
NEW WORDS FOR 2008 : 14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
February 08 My sisterWell finally the end of the week. It has been a long one. I have a DAR meeting tomorrow and then we have a neighbors housewarming party to attend. They have remodeled their home...it took 8 months...they had to move out for those 8 months. I don't think I would like that, but they are young and strong, they seem no worse for the wear.
I talked to my youngest sister, yesterday. She was not very happy. She is four years younger than I am. She is the third oldest or the second youngest in our family. So math whizzes out there, how many children in my family. Come on you geniuses put that thinking cap on. You guessed it 4.
My sister, let's call her S2, is an interesting individual. I have some great memories of her over the years. Let's stroll down memory lane shall we. One of my earliest memories of her is when she was about three or four years old. She had the sweetest blond ringlets you've ever seen and the cutest smile. Just thinking about that image makes me smile. I think S2 knows that I love her very much. I am proud to be her sister. But I digress...back to memory lane.
One memory I have is when S2 was 6 or 7 and I was 10 or 11. We lived in an old farm house in the northern part of Wisconsin. The best thing about the farm house was, it sat right across the highway from the Dairy Queen and down the street from an A&W Drive-In. We also could walk to the city swimming pool from our house. My parents had turned the dining room (not sure it was originally the dining room) into a bedroom for them. It was on the first floor in the front of the house. The doors were beautiful french doors with leaded glass. Two of them. Anyway, one day, I can't even remember why, but S2 was chasing me with a belt and swinging it at me. I have two sisters and the three of us fought quite a bit growing up...all in good fun of course. I proceeded to run into the living room and then into my parents bedroom shutting the two french doors befind me. S2 was still chasing me and as I closed the door she was swinging the belt and the buckle end of the belt hit the glass doors and you guessed it...broke the glass. Now who do you suppose got into the most trouble for that little shenanigan. Not S2 that's for sure. It was a very expensive door and my mom was very mad. We did not own the house, we were renting so we had to replace the door quickly before the landlord saw it.
Now that I think of it, there was another window breaking episode. We were living in Minnesota, it must have been 1965 or 1966. S2 was probably around 4 or 5. My older sister and I were being chase again by S2, again I know not why. We were outside and we started to run into the house and we immediately shut the door behind us and locked it. S2, started pounding on the door to let her in...we of course were laughing I am sure. You know what happened next she broke the glass in the door. We also got into a great deal of trouble for that incident.
In 1987 S2 and I went to Mexico, Puerto Villarta for a weeks vacation. We had a great time. One spring we took a trip to visit our uncle in Dallas, on a whim. We also went on three vacations to Florida together. Two years in a row we camped at KOA camp grounds and then the third year we said...enough roughing it...and stayed in hotels. Our brother and his girlfriend came on that trip with us. The first year we went to Florida we went with two other couples. We were going to be in Florida over Easter, so before we left S2 and I got this bright idea to make everyone an Easter basket and bring along the candy and what not to put in the baskets. So we sat up night after night making these baskets out of plastic canvas and yarn, with each persons initials on the baskets. My mom helped as I recall. On the way down to Florida...we drove...we worried the chocolate would melt, so I think we made sure to put it in the cooler. On Easter morning S2 and I got up early and placed Easter baskets outside the door of each tent. Such fun. I wonder if S2 remembers that. She has a pretty good memory, so I bet she does.
S2 and I spent a lot of time together when we were in our 20's and 30's. We both played softball and volleyball in leagues. We also shot pool in a league. I only played one year, but S2 still shoots pool, I think.
One of the strongest memories I have is when S2 was in a bad motorcycle accident. I wrote about it in two previous blogs. She smashed up her face pretty bad, over 40 stitches and also broke off a piece of her elbow bone. That was something, I sat in the emergency waiting room for a couple of hours while they stitched her up. S2 was a trouper. When she finally came out of the trauma room, her back was to me, I didn't know whether to yell at her or hug her. I chose to hug her, I am sure she felt bad enough already. She was riding the motorcycle with only a temperary license and she wasn't supposed to be driving at night until she received her permanent license.
Some random thoughts about S2:
You might wonder why I am writing about my sister in this blog. Yesterday, when I spoke with S2 she was down. I just want to say to her...You can do anything you put your mind to. You are beautiful inside and out. If you need anything...I am here for you. I know I am not close geographically, but I think of you always, and wish I lived closer. I miss hanging out with you. We have had so much fun together. You need and deserve a wonderful vacation. Don't let anything get in the way of that. Have a wonderful trip. I love you very much! :) The Middle Daughter (as mom likes to refer to me) |
|
|
