So here we are in the midst of another leap year celebration. February 29th! It seems like it was only four years ago that we were last celebrating. Of course, then, in 2016, leap year only served to prove that Phil the Groundhog was wrong as winter was even more prolonged than it usually is.

This year, however, I am first celebrating a Floridian Leap Year, which is a grand occasion to rejoice that summer will not start as early as the year before.

An extra day of winter is just what the weatherman ordered for a state that has two hundred ninety degree days and what appears to be a summer season that extends to Black Friday.

I am exaggerating, but it is Leap Year Saturday, and I won’t get the opportunity for another four years.

The whole concept of a leap year is a bit confusing and disheartening. No one could come up with an accurate calendar or even a precise measurement of a day. I was shocked to learn that our whole concept of time is an approximation and that to create the illusion that our calendars and timepieces are precise, we have to create an extra day once every four years to narrow the gap in our precision.

It kind of reminds me of the difficulty the National Football League has been having in defining what a catch is. It always seemed an easy thing for my friends and me to describe, but the NFL has been tinkering with the concept for several years, and still, no one can accurately explain to me when a receiver has actually caught a ball.

How can we ever have peace in the middle east if we can’t even get that straightened out?

Anyway, a nagging question that I have always had but never dared to ask is how do leap year birthday people celebrate their birthdays?

Well, of course, today is their birthday, so Happy Birthday to you all.

My question pertains to last year and next year, for example.

Do you celebrate March 1st? That seems to be a logical assumption, but why not February 28th?

I think I would alternate between the two. I would rationalize that you can’t be born the day before you were born and so March 1st is the better choice. Nevertheless, if I were actually born in February, I would want a February birthday because I have all that birthstone jewelry.

It’s a conundrum, to say the least. But it is a far more enjoyable conundrum than say wondering if I should be taking that trip to England and Ireland in the face of the Coronavirus?

So, enjoy the leap everybody.