Time, the 4^th dimension. Quality time. Family time. Daylight Savings Time. Dinner time. Time out. Double time. Time to grow up. Out of time.

Like many people, I suppose, I’ve thought a lot about time lately. Not just about Y2K and leap year, but about time with loved ones and family, and taking time for myself. We can think about time in several different ways. Scientifically, wondering about how time is affected as velocity increases. Why is it leap year? Philosophically, as in "is time like a groove in a record?" And are things predestined, can we bump the needle and move ahead or backwards through time? Or Biblically, as in Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, where verse one says "There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens," the lyrics of which the Byrds made number one on the pop charts in 1965.

So often, sadly, the best times also seem to be the most fleeting. For me, the best times have been times shared with others. Those moments when everything is perfect and the world stays away. Maybe it’s time for all of us to reflect on how we spend our time, and strive to fill our lives with more magic moments like those. It’s a choice we can make. Have you pulled out your birth certificate lately to check for an expiration date? How about on the birth certificates of those you love? Time.

Speaking of leap year… Do you know how leap years are determined? If you guessed they happen every four years, you’re not quite right! You would have been right from 45 BC until 1582 AD when the Gregorian calendar was introduced. Now we have three rules determining when leap years occur, and the year 2000 is very special because it is the first time rule number three has been used. Rule one: Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year. Rule two: But every year divisible by 100 is NOT a leap year. Rule three: Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a leap year. Now that you’re an expert on leap years, tune your computer into http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/ the Time Service Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. and their "atomic" clock and become an expert on the correct time!

Possibly the most poignant words I remember about time are Jim Croce’s words in his song "Time In A Bottle" copyright SAJA Records:

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I’d like to do

Is to save every day

‘Til eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you.

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I’d save every day like a treasure and then

Again I would spend them with you.

But there never seems to be enough time…