Blog 2410 – 05.31.2022

The Last Day Of May

Seven of the twelve months have thirty-one days, four have thirty, and one, February, has twenty-eight and every four years on Leap Year it has twenty-nine. I remember the little song they taught us in elementary school:

“Thirty days has September, April, June and November. All the rest have thirty-one, except February which stands alone with twenty-eight and Leap Year gives it twenty-nine.”

Over the many moons, or months of my going on seventy-two years I have had reason to recall that song many time to remember how many days a current month might have. Either that or I resorted to the knuckle trick. If you make two fists and put them together, reading left to right and naming the knuckles and the spaces like valleys between, you will find the knuckles all have thirty-one days and the valleys thirty, excepting February the always shorter even every four years.

The days, months, and years seem to pass much faster with age and being born midway through the last century I still wear a wrist watch and refer to it often to mark the time. My watch displays the month of the year in a tiny window on the face by the three. For the five months less than thirty-one, at the end of those months, I have to manually change the date to keep the little number showing in the tiny window correct.

I owned a more expensive watch once that was programmed to make those corrections automatically. Smart phones do that and even correct for Day Light Savings Time automatically. I keep my smart phone with me at most times so I really have not needed a wristwatch for several years. But some habits are hard to break and when I forget to put my watch on I stare at my wrist often throughout the day checking the time and date. The old joke when asked the time is, “It’s half past the freckle.”

I am sure the history books are full of important people who were born on the last day of May and that many noteworthy events have taken place on this day. Google it, if you are interested.

One last bit of thirty-first month trivia, months with thirty-one days begin with January and are every other one except for the two that come together, July and August. Whether you believe in man-caused climate change or not the weather prognosticators are calling for a long hot summer this year with the two longest and hottest months of the year together again as usual.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bbv-2M7_nUKAn-NeXIzCHgcHMBTaOBi2/view?usp=drivesdk

If Ever I Would Leave You