I would also like a basket of kittens. It is not yet kitten season, however, so even though I'm home for a couple weeks, there are no kittens to foster.

They want to charge me $750+ to change my flight to Saturday morning. I could get the $200 change fee of that refunded possibly, but I guess I'll be cancelling the flight.

fuckity shrift, I'm sorry. That sucks.

shrift, did you tell them it was for a funeral? I'm not sure if that would make a difference or not. Will you get your money back for cancelling?

What does "meteorological Spring" mean?

Meteorologists generally consider Winter to be Dec. 1st to Feb. 28, Spring to be March 1 to May 31, etc. I like it because it cheers me up at this time of year.

I am opposed to Daylight Savings time starting before the equinox. Who thought that was a good idea?

Congress. Because they thought there should be at least one thing that would conserve energy in the energy bill they passed in the aughts. But apparently it doesn't really conserve energy,but just produces annoyance.

Bah, That seems unreasonable. I'm sorry shrift.

Meteorologists generally consider Winter to be Dec. 1st to Feb. 28, Spring to be March 1 to May 31,

Why do they do that?

From what I understand, DST in general does not conserve energy, but even ignoring that how much thought does it take to realize that moving an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening could only be helpful if there are surplus morning daylight hours? And that before the spring equinox there's no surplus daylight?

Not quite as stupid as wanting pregnant women to swallow cameras to get a look inside the uterus, I suppose, but stupid enough to aggravate me.

shrift, did you tell them it was for a funeral?

I did, but apparently that still means you're expected to pay for the ticket difference if you change your flight.

I have to file an extenuating circumstances refund request to get a refund of the original ticket.

That, sucks. I'm sorry.

Why do they do that?

From Wikipedia:

Meteorologists generally define four seasons in many climatic areas: spring, summer, autumn (fall) and winter. These are demarcated by the values of their average temperatures on a monthly basis, with each season lasting three months. The three warmest months are by definition summer, the three coldest months are winter and the intervening gaps are spring and autumn. Spring, when defined in this manner, can start on different dates in different regions. In terms of complete months, in most north temperate zone locations, spring months are March, April and May, although differences exist from country to country.[1] (Summer is June, July, August; autumn is September, October, November; winter is December, January, February). Most south temperate zone locations have opposing seasons with spring in September, October and November. Swedish meteorologists define the beginning of spring as the first occasion on which the average daytime temperature exceeds zero degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days, thus the date varies with latitude and elevation.[2] In Australia and New Zealand, spring conventionally begins on 1 September and ends 30 November.[