The Extra Day...and it's a SNOWDAY

Every four years this big old clock needs correcting.  On each rotation we gain a little time and every so often at the end of February we need to balance the books.  Today is the extra day that shakes everything out and keeps us regular.

It's an extra day for the kids, too, but they're calling it by a different name:

SNOWDAY!

One of the benefits for children in Canada is the SNOWDAY.  I capitalize it because you only ever hear it yelled by children.  Today was a SNOWDAY for the kids.

Excuse me for a moment while I shift into curmudgeon mode.  Ahhh, there we are - all I need now is my walkin' stick...

What we have today wasn't really a true and for real SNOWDAY.  No sir!  What we have today is an anticipatory SNOWDAY.  With nary a flake on the ground they cancelled the buses (when I'm in curmudgeon mode "they" takes on that non-specific universal quality.  I'm speaking of the transportation provider right now but when you're a curmudgeon it is always "they" or "them").  And they did it with only the promise of snow.  Something as flighty as a forecast did away with the buses today.  Why, I remember when I was boy in rural Ontario that there'd need to be a good solid six inches of fresh snow on the ground before they'd think of cancelling the buses and invoke a SNOWDAY.  A SNOWDAY used to mean something back then.  They were rare things and meant to be savoured  and were, by their very nature, magical.

Anticipatory SNOWDAYS hardly deserve capitalization.  When something as simple as a forecast can spawn a SNOWDAY they become common things, devoid of the magic they once had.

But my kids enjoy a good SNOWDAY none the less.  Once the snow, which I'm promised will be formidable, finally arrives we will head out to build castles and persons of snow and to engage in the bloodsport of the season - the snowball fight.

Ah, to hell with being a curmudgeon.

I guess even anticipatory SNOWDAYS are pretty damn magical, especially on the 29th of February.

Doing my part to help Canada Post

So I checked the mail box and there was an envelope - sans postage mark - with this in it:

Yeah...that's an unsolicited little CIBC credit card application.  It might be unrelated, but when we there's tough talk about the economy it seems, to me at least, that these things start to show up.  I see these applications and I know that the people who will jump at these "opportunities" are probably those who can least afford them.

And the banks make it easy:

Wow - not only can I apply for credit I might not be able to afford, I don't even need to pay for postage!  What a bargain!   I'll try not to notice those 19% interest rates on the back of the application...

I figure I should let CIBC know how I feel and they've been kind enough to supply the means.  

I do this with all unsolicited mail that shows up with a postage paid envelope.  It might seem petty, but the post office needs all the help it can get.

Half Way to 90

Well, another trip around the sun successfully completed with the realization that I most likely have more behind me than ahead of me.  But, I'm guessing, the ones ahead of me are going to get better and better (until the last ten which, to paraphrase Dennis Leary, are the wheel-chair, adult diaper, can't wipe your own ass shitty ones).

Anyway, it was kind of interesting that my birthday fell upon Chinese New Year here in North America.  This is the year of the dragon, so I celebrated by drawing a little Chinese dragon in my notebook which both kids instantly recognized as being dragon-like.  One point for retaining the drawing skills in my old age.

I don't make resolutions on January 1st.  I've always figured that since I have a January birthday that if resolutions are to be made, I can make them on the 23rd.  So, since my birthday and Chinese New Year arrived at the same time, I made a few Chinese New Year Resolutions.

I don't often share my resolutions and I'll keep most of them to myself.  Here's one, however:

I have a pair of fascinating, interesting and dynamic children sharing my house and my life.  They promise to do nothing but become more interesting as time goes by.  I really want to see what these two are going to do in the world and, selfishly, I want to do that for as long as I possible can.  To that end, I have resolved to be healthier.

I have been exercising more and I have improved my diet.  There was a time when vegetables performed only the role of decoration on my plate.  Everything green and leafy might as well have been parsley for all the chance it would end up in my mouth.  I have always believed, and still do, that my ape-like ancestors did not fight their way to the top of the food chain so that I could enjoy a salad.  No, sir.  Meat is king.  An opposable thumb is a damn handy thing to have when peeling an orange but it can be done without.  Not so holding a steak knife.  As Larry Niven once said, it takes little to no skill to sneak up on a leaf.

That said - months ago, I stood on a scale and the scale told me, without a doubt, it was time to change something.  So I have.  Meat is still my friend and always will be, but I have tempered my carnivorous habits with a new relationship with our leafy friends.  Yes...the leaf is now my friend, too.

So far I've had results.  Since that initial eye-opening step on the scales two months ago I am happily 20 pounds lighter and feel a lot healthier.  And I intend to keep it up.  I have other resolutions that I won't share but this I vow with my Chinese New Year Resolution:

In the Year of The Dragon, this guy won't be draggin' his ass anymore.