Tuesday, 2/28

Well...this is one temporal paradox I never thought I'd find myself in.

Welcome to the end of February, a time when I'm usually a little excited because it means that we're six months away from our next adventure over in Europe. Because we usually leave on the 27^th or 28^th of August (or, some years, the first or second of September) we get to a little “moment” marking the fact that we're halfway to our next trip.

But not this year.

Nope; this year, we leave for Germany on August 30^th, which means that the six-month date for our little “moment” would be February 30^th. However, as some of you may know, February has, at most, 29 days. There has never been a February 30^th, which means that this year, we'll never get to the six-month mark before we leave for Europe.

And if we never get to the six-month mark, does that mean that we'll never get to the actual date we leave?

Don't worry; we're leaving on August 30^th, whether or not we ever actually get to celebrate our six-month “moment”. But I am curious—just how WOULD you celebrate a six-month anniversary when it falls on a month where that date doesn't exist. I mean, say you were married on March 31^st. If you were so inclined, when would you celebrate your six-month anniversary? There is no September 31^st, so technically you couldn't do it. You could celebrate your “almost” six-month anniversary on September 30^th, or your “just over” six-month anniversary on October 1st, but you couldn't celebrate your actual six-month anniversary on September 31st because there is no September 31^st.

Just like there's no February 30^th to celebrate the six-month “moment” before we head back to Europe.

Yes...I know I'm devoting way too much thought to this. And, in the scheme of things, it really isn't important. We can celebrate our six-month “moment” whenever we feel like it. Heck, we could celebrate it both today and tomorrow because, like if you get married on March 31^st, there's no real way to celebrate your six-month wedding anniversary.

The laws of physics—or, in this case, the arbitrary laws of a calender thought up hundreds of years ago—won't allow it.

So here's the logical thing to do. I'm sure people who are born on leap days do this all the time. August 30^th, the day we leave for Europe, is the 242nd day of the year. If half of a year—six months—is 182 and a half days—that means we celebrate the “halfway” mark before we head to Europe anytime past noon on March 1^st. So we don't have a February 30^th to celebrate our little six month “moment”, but we do have a 12-hour window tomorrow during which we can celebrate the “halfway” movement.

I guess that will have to do.

(jim@wmqt.com), who wonders how much I could actually accomplish if I devoted as much brain power to a real problem as I did this one!