Travels With An Airhead

Leap Years and Winter Pursuits

— by Notch Miyake

To continue the astrological discussion we began last month, we should note that this is a leap year, meaning that February has one day more than normal.

We have to do this from time to time because the year is not exactly a year long. It is actually a few hours shorter than a year is supposed to be.

Why they couldn?t get it exactly right, I don?t know. It?s like most of the stuff we get today: Always a little screwed up.

Anyway, once again you are asking why you should give a shit and why are you reading this anyway?

Well, in our continual search for truth and motorcycling related things to write about in the middle of winter; I should remind you that, if we ignored the leap year, the Labor Day Rally would be in the middle of winter in a few hundred years and attendance would certainly drop below break-even. Even re-instituting the pre-registration mailing wouldn?t help.

Motorcycling is a summer avocation, and for many of our members, winter is a barren time with nothing much to do other than watch the calendar.

There are, of course, the traditional winter pursuits of making babies and excessive drinking. But as the average age of our members has risen, participation in these activities has slowed, leaving a wistful void.

Some of our members have solved this problem by taking up a game called Euchre.

So what is Euchre? Although it sounds like it should, it has nothing to do with male castration. (That is eunuch, a practice that went out of favor with women?s lib and the associated reduction in harems. I understand, however, that it is still a critical part of the modern-day sex-change operation.)

Euchre is an obscure card game popular in the 19th and 20th Centuries. It is even more obscure than Canasta, which is, thankfully, no longer played.

Euchre is the official card game of the Finger Lakes BMW Motorcycle Club. (Not strip poker, as you might hope. Tough luck.)

Euchre is played with half a deck of cards, and the object is to avoid being euchred (screwed). Despite its apparent simplicity, it has many complex strategies.

So, as a service to our non-euchre playing members, I will research the game on the Web and teach everyone to play next month.

And at the next rally we will have a Euchre Run instead of a Poker Run.

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