February, ordinarily a symmetrical month with four occurrences of each day of the week, becomes lopsided in Leap Year. Here we are at Leap Day, Feb. 29, and having a fifth Thursday which caused the Gazette-Journal to publish a fifth issue in this shortest month.

It’s also observed by some as Sadie Hawkins Day, a frivolous bit of antique folklore in which women are allowed to ask men on a date.

The good news is that we are on the cusp of spring. Earlier sunrises and later sunsets are providing us with an additional 10 minutes or so of sunshine in each day. Somehow life is easier when daylight is abundant.

Also good is the steady opening of the daffodils, bit by bit, along the roadsides. Soon they will be joined by a haze of light green in the trees, then leaves will appear, and another winter will be in the rear-view mirror.

But the bad news is that Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday, March 10. Mornings will plunge into darkness again, with sunrise well after 7 a.m.

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