The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Last week, I wrote an “Under The Wire” about the month of January. I had never thought about doing that before until it came to life in my imagination as a pretty cool month. It starts every fresh new year, generates a lot of parties dedicated to celebrating the new year and generates lots of new calendars from just about everybody we do business with. Many sport pictures from barns to birds and everything in between, making for some fun viewing. When the column hit Sue’s desk, her first observation was, “It is no longer January, this story is going to run in February.” While I had not thought about that, following my life motto assigned me in high school, “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” valid justification popped into my mind. “Well, yeah, nobody is going to ever write about February anyway so why not run a nice, positive story about a good month?”

February, to me is a bummer month. It is so bad, they only gave it 28 days which even then seems to take forever to pass.

Somebody even tried to pep it up by adding a 29th day every four years. Leap year they call it for good reason. After 28 dark, gloomy and cold February days we can barely stand, with the end in sight, here comes one more terrible day to live through. “Leap” refers to our urges to do that off a cliff, in front of a train or from the roof top. Another February day? You got to be kidding. The human body and mind can only stand so much.

Thus you read about a great month, January during the drab and boring days of February. You will probably read about the year’s poor step-child, February, during one of the remaining ten months of 2024. All of which will be so much better than February, no one will care what I wrote about it. Have a great year all of you and remember when the 2024 calendars start arriving, it’s OK to tear out the second month and use it to start the fireplace. It’s not good for much else. I must add, however, those of you born in February, please don’t be upset with my words. Lots of well-known people have been born in February. Among them, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Charles Darwin, Mitch McConnell and both of Joe Biden’s sons to name a few.