Leap Day

Interesting facts about Feb. 29:

In Ireland, today is considered a permissible day for women to propose to men because of a deal St. Bridget made with St. Patrick “to bring some balance to the traditional roles of men and women.”

In some other European countries, if a man refuses a lass’ proposal, he must award the “jilted woman” a meal, a gift or “buy her a dozen gloves to cover up her ringless fingers.

Don’t get married in Greece today. It’s considered unlucky.

Your chances of being born on February 29 are about 1 in 1,461 and about 4 million-5 million people around the world only celebrate their birthdays every four years.

The day can cause problems for people with the 2/29 birthday because many online systems don’t recognize it. Most “leaplings” choose to celebrate on either February 28 or March 1. However, many states make them wait until March 1 to be considered “legal” to purchase alcohol or tobacco or to obtain drivers’ licenses.

If I'm still around in 2016 to see another Leap Day, I'll be in my mid 70's. 

I finally pieced together all my  school blog posts that I thought I could use, and cut and pasted then onto the main first draft of my book.  Now I'll edit and edit again as I decide what stays in and what gets put where.  Going to make a folder of pictures I want to use too.  All fun stuff.  I really need, though, to pace myself. I spent entirely too much time on this laptop yesterday.  Like over 8 hours.  I might as well be working again.  No. What am I saying?!

I never take my retirement for granted. I love love love that I can get up when I want, dress how I want, eat when I want, and settle down in front of the computer to surf around and see what's new.  I was made for this lifestyle.  Ha!

I was thinking about the title for this book when I realized 'Be True to your School' was already a book title. And I was right.  Bob Greene wrote his in 1987.  He  had kept a diary in 1964 when he was a teenager and he used these notes to put together a very interesting read.  I checked it out at the library yesterday and started it last night.   I'm lovin' it!  I also checked out "Fraternity: A journey in search of Five Presidents" that he wrote when he inteviewed Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush.  It's also easy reading and I was hooked from page 1.

Another book I picked up was written by him and his sister called 'To our Children's Children'. It's a book of questions to answer when compiling your family history.  A small book, easy to use, and I intend to start that project TODAY.  The more projects I have going, the happier I am.  I've been thinking for some time on how to write a novel and what to write about but a solid story line hasn't formatted in my head just yet.  I've got a couple of ideas to play around with but writing my family history is just the perfect fit for me right now. I intend to join ancestry.com in a couple of months and that will lead me down any number of roads, I'm sure.

Last night I watched a two-hour special on PBS about the Amish.  What a good show that was.  I love PBS.  It gives television a good name.

I was all ready to get up and see white stuff on the ground but so far, it's bypassed this area.  Fine with me.  I didn't ride my bike yesterday as it was too dang cold out there but the sun is trying to shine a bit so I think I'll stop right here and now and get myself out there for 20 minutes or so before I talk myself out of it.  Sammy is sleeping but I'll try to get him out for a walk later too.

Can hardly believe tomorrow is March and that we're approaching the third anniversary of my dad passing away. (April 30)
Just saw this on Facebook and thought it was a great shot....