Last Tuesday of the month

These months with 31 days just get to me.  Why oh why is May so darn long?
OK, let's look at it another way.  Look, May is still here!

I thought up a new calendar system.  Why do we have to follow such an archaic one, with names of gods from ancient mythology, and a seven day week, where people in most of today's world work 5 on and 2 off?

Shelly and Baxter at the Tailgate

Us retired people don't think in those terms on a daily basis quite as much.  Monday is no longer the drudge it once was, and taking day trips during the week means avoiding the tourist traffic on weekends.

So why not have weeks of 10 days each? That's the way us humans have been counting many things forever...on our fingers and thumbs.  Actually the solar year of 365 days works well with 30 weeks of 10 days, and one of 5 days.  The leap year could still be added every 4 years too.

Months? Well, I'd sure even them out so there isn't the silly 28 day one, and those with 31 days.
Any ideas?  I haven't thought that far yet.

I get these crazy inspirations when in the dentist chair getting drilled.  It's something to do with the horrible vibrations of that drill.  I swear he had one that was synched to a vibration that drove me bonkers.

The other thought I came up with was to write a letter to my future self...say to be opened in 10 years (should I live so long.) I think it would be interesting for anyone to read how this May 2016 is full of such craziness, from politics to legal bathroom useage.  I can coin a new term for this interest... genitalmania. 

Outside the office at Blue Ridge Apartments

April trivia

Since it has been fun having my blog as a source of info for last month...as posted from Wikipedia the source of all knowing and trivial information...here's April trivia, from the same source.

Rabbit rabbit, or White Rabbit...sayings that imply good luck for the new beginning...another Celtic-based practice that several of my friends have reintroduced into modern life at the beginning of each month.

The Romans gave this month the Latin name Aprilis^[1] but the derivation of this name is uncertain. The traditional etymology is from the verb aperire, "to open", in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to "open", which is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of ἁνοιξις (anoixis) (opening) for spring. Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to the goddess Venus, her Veneralia being held on the first day, it has been suggested that Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her equivalent Greek goddess name Aphrodite (Aphros), or from the Etruscan name Apru.

The Anglo-Saxons called April Oster-monath or Eostur-monath. The Venerable Bede says in The Reckoning of Time that this month Eostur is the root of the word Easter. He further states that the month was named after a goddess Eostre whose feast was in that month

Buddha's Birthday is celebrated in April (here is pictured the Tian Tan Buddha in Hong Kong)

• Rape Awareness Month
• Jazz Appreciation Month (United States)
• National Poetry Month (United States)
• National Poetry Writing Month
• Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month (International)
• Confederate History Month (southern United States)-April 26
• National Arab American Heritage Month (United States)
• National Child Abuse Prevention Month (United States)
• Sexual Assault Awareness Month (United States)
• Financial Literacy Month (United States)

Movable observances

• Opening Day – first Sunday in April
• Good Friday (Christians) – a Friday between March 20 and April 23, being the last Friday before Easter
• Easter, or Resurrection Day (Christians) - celebrated the First Sunday after the first full moon on or after the Spring Equinox, near March 21st (between March 22 and April 25)
• International Trombone Week - varies. In 2012, it is April 1–15^[5]
• Boston Marathon – Third Monday
• London Marathon – usually fourth Sunday
• Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day, usually fourth Thursday (United States)
• Arbor Day – last Friday of April in some states in the United States
• Record Store Day – usually celebrated on the third Saturday

Fixed observances

• April Fools' Day – April 1
• Belarusian Day – April 3
• Japanese school calendar also starts from April 1, although Nyugakushiki (entry ceremony for schools) are usually held later, around second week of April.
• Arbor Day (Korea) – April 5
• End of Tax Year (UK) – April 5
• April 1 is the first day of Japanese fiscal year. Major Japanese companies usually have Nyushashiki (entry ceremony for companies) for new employees those who newly hired after their graduation from schools, on this day.
• Passover (Hebrew:פסח) a Jewish holiday
• World Health Day – April 7
• Buddha's Birthday – Traditional Date – April 8
• Araw ng Kagitingan, also known as "Bataan Day" (Philippines) – April 9
• Thai New Year in Thailand – April 13
• Tax Day (US) – April 15
• National Healthcare Decisions Day (US) - April 16^[6]
• Patriots' Day – April 21
• Earth Day – April 22
• Conch Republic Independence Celebration (Key West, Florida) – April 23
• St George's Day Patron Saint Celebration (England, Europe) – April 23
• Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day – April 24
• Liberation Day in Italy - April 25 is a National Holiday that celebrates the end of the Nazi Germany occupation in the Northern Italy.
• ANZAC Day (Australia and New Zealand) – April 25
• Carnation Revolution (Portugal) – April 25
• Confederate Memorial Day (US: Georgia, Tennessee,Florida, Texas)- April 26
• Resistance day in Slovenia - formerly Liberation Front of the Slovene People day April 27
• Freedom Day (South Africa) – April 27

April symbols

• April's birthstone is the diamond.
• The birth flower is typically listed as either the Daisy (Bellis perennis) or the Sweet Pea.^[8][9]
• The zodiac signs for the month of April are Aries (until April 20) and Taurus (April 21 onwards).

Calendars

I've actually designed a few, with pen and ink drawings and little quotes.
But I just wanted to acknowledge the Gregorian one, which is being honored  today over on GeneaBloggers.

On 24 February 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, enlisting the expertise of distinguished astronomers and mathematicians, issued a bull correcting the Julian calendar, which was then 10 days in error. The correction was a minor one, changing the rule about leap years. The new calendar named for him, the Gregorian calendar, became effective 4 October 1582, in most Catholic countries, in 1752 in Britain and the American colonies, in 1918 in Russia and in 1923 in Greece. It is the most widely used calendar in the world today.

This still was trying to become corrected back to a birthday for Jesus, which was not exactly when the calendar began.  But it does work better for leap years, and solstices and equinoxes, a bit.

I always laugh about how there were no babies born (in Catholic countries) on the dates Oct 5-14, in 1582.  Genealolgists pay attention to those little details, and many have changed dates of events based on that 1752 adoption of the Gregorian calendar in Britain and the Americas.  That must have made a bit of difference for lots of our ancestors' birth and death dates, around 10 days difference based on the change in 1582.  But I've seldom seen any changes of that magnitude.  No answer to that puzzle.