Welcome to February, Population 2

Yesterday was the official start of February, but since no one reads this, I don't write these on the days I say I do, February is the shortest month, and I hate idiots, I didn't say this yesterday.

February is the last gasp of winter most years, which is why I don't expect much in the way of snow, just dreary, cold, and wet. Global warming will no doubt exacerbate this situation immensely.

It's hard to get up a lot of enthusiasm for February. It's largely just a filler. Why it has to be shorter is beyond me; it's not because it has occasional leap days, because even with a leap day it's still shorter. One of the 31 day months could easily give up one day to February to make things simpler, but that would confuse schoolchildren and probably cause some massive upheaval in the calendar business. I don't know the explanation for February's shortness, but it undoubtedly has to do with Christianity, because everything in our calendar has to do with Christianity. This makes the name February ironic, as it is named after a Roman god. On second thought, maybe the calendar has to do with ancient Rome.

I've also never been able to understand why we insert a day into the second month of the year during Leap Year. The extra day could be tacked on to a better month, one which could use it more profitably. All we get in February is one extra day of boring, bleak cold-and-wet. I'm not against the cold, mind you, and if February were a more interesting month an extra day of cold could be quite nice. But things stand as they are and always shall be. Like Daylight Savings Time. Maybe when that rolls around I'll be tepid about it as well.

The month gets short shrift on pretty much every list, especially the list of months where it is easy to keep up your New Years Resolutions. If you've made it through January, February should be easy to coast through, but most people don't make it through January because of reasons into which I've already gone. Later in the year people who maintain the resolve find it easier, but the short month when you can claim to have one month under your belt is actually much easier, because there's not so much pressure built up. This is all completely non-scientific, and I've already said that I don't make resolutions.

And yet here I am, a few days late, but still in style. Fashionably late, as it were. The Christmas rush has worn off and the year is official. February isn't too bad indoors.