Ah, February 29. That odd day that arrives once every four years, surprising some and blown off by many.
Did you approach it as an extra bonus day or just another Thursday?
First, I prayed that I will see the next one — in 2028. Then, I made the most of the day by planning a coffee visit with a friend. Nothing tremendously unusual about that, but a treat nonetheless.
Expecting me to explain a math and sciencey thing like Leap Day is a leap in itself.
Back in the ancient days of my college education, I skipped statistics because I had a letter from the Sports Information office saying the stats I kept on game day as a student intern were surely enough.
So in four years of school, I took exactly zero math classes.
I didn’t get quite as lucky with science.
I took a very basic geology course and the professor, Brainerd Mears, wrote the textbook. Never a good sign.
So I got less than passing. Then came the last semester of my college life and while everyone else was sliding toward home, I was stumbling around first trying desperately to graduate.
I had dropped so many classes in 3-1/2 years (8 o’clock classes were not my friend living on my own for the first time) that I had the pleasure of an evening phone call from Fritz the Dad during my senior year.
“Hey pal, just want you to know that the first four years are on us, and after that it’s on you,” he barked.
Message received.
I still needed a science class so my blessed advisor put me in beginning astronomy with a hundred freshmen and a whole bunch of seniors like me who flunked Mears’ class.
We met on Wednesday evenings on top of the Union and looked at stars through telescopes. Short of delaying our Wednesday arrival at the Buc by two hours, it was a stress-free and lucky way to get that science credit.
So as I understand it, Leap Day is a math and science way to use up an accrual of extra hours and minutes from the previous three years, 11 months.
If I had kids at home, I would let them eat ice cream for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. I think it’s a shame to let Leap Day pass without any fun little acknowledgement at all.
And now a quick personal note. Good luck to the Glenrock Herders in the Class 3A East basketball tournament in Rawlins.
Just eight students above the cutoff mark between Class 3A and 2A, both boys and girls teams have struggled this season.
True, it’s five against five on the court, but bigger schools obviously have a much larger pool from which to draw.
Everywhere they go, the Herders are praised for their sportsmanship and not losing their cool.
This as the scoreboard sometimes gets very ugly and opponents full-court press until the end.
Obviously, we are not looking for participation ribbons here, but at some point common sense about enrollment numbers should come into play.
A classification with a difference of 400 from biggest to smallest seems a little out of whack, even for sparsely populated Wyoming.
Here’s to making it to March. Let’s do more leaping than shuffling, shall we?
