Every day I look at the world from my window

[austin_dern]

There are some days that are easy to remember, that stand out for being extraordinary. Having an easy-to-remember property about them helps. If it weren't for the rarity of the date I couldn't tell you that on February 29, 1996, I bought a new wallet from the campus bookstore. I'd had a lovely billfold, a gift from my parents, but it was far too large to carry in my pocket except in the winter months when I could store it in my jacket pocket. A replacement wallet I'd got was nice enough but fell apart badly, and after years of putting up with its broken seams --- seams I even tried patching using a hot wax machine, which never worked but if you've never used a hot wax machine to do newspaper layup you've missed a great joy in life --- I figured it was time for a replacement.

I'm not so sure what I did February 29, 2000. I'm sure I was still recovering from the shock of Charles Schulz's death, but it couldn't have been all that was on my mind.

February 29, 2004, I remember going down to Bugis Junction particularly; it struck me if there were ever a time to buy a wallet to replace that of 1996, this would be a good day for it. But I couldn't find one I liked, so I just kept the one I had. Besides, 2008 would come soon enough and surely I could get something suitable then.

February 29, 2008, I didn't buy a wallet. But I did embrace a silly little thing bunny_hugger declared, something hopeful and a little scary, and such the right thing for us both.

It's going to be hard for any February 29 to ever live up to that. But it is our real anniversary, whatever our marriage certificate ultimately says.

Trivia: Herman Hollerith was born 29 February 1860 in Buffalo, New York. Source: Jacquard's Web: How A Hand-Loom Led To The Birth Of The Information Age, James Essinger.

Currently Reading: Colonial New Jersey: A History, John E Pomfret. Wouldn't you figure? Here I run across a colonial land-use charter grant which would have been perfect as a problem for my Algebra class's first exam.

PS: An Overused Intermediacy: I do some pouting that an example I wanted to used has been used by a lot of people who were not actually me.

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Oh I hadn't *thought* of keeping the keychain loyalty cards in there. They've been buried behind my work time card int he credit card slot where they need to be fished out.

I've kept the gym one on my keychain, begrudgingly, because I'm using that thrice a week and it's inordinately sensible to.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I don't put the keychain loyalty cards on my keychain for ... well, not much reason, actually, except that I'm marginally more likely to have my wallet than my car keys on me. And the keychain cards take up less space than the regular-sized cards, so therefore, it makes more sense to keep those around.