Four years ago, all I thought of was snoozing. Three years ago I wrote about the joys of an extra day off through the good graces of the good folk who figure out what days off. I had a premonition that the western Canadian notion of "family" would move in on the space eventually and here we are. I don't know why Albertans fed this feeble notion into the culture, like the use of heritage meaning something like "do what you are told" or "this holiday is not about your family." Family in this sense smacks a bit of the political idea that the family is the basic unit of society which, of course, it is and it is not. For many, family is the greatest source of grief and sorrow that we have. For others it is their only source of security. Both facts are sad. And some are simply and happily alone. Why can't we have something a bit more beefy like Constitution Day or a day that celebrates Joseph Howe, Molly Brant or the day we beat off those northern New Yorkers a couple of hundred years ago?

Yet, I like my family. We have our tensions and as the kids grow will have more, less interesting ones. Family has taught me how to be less of an oaf and less of a loaf. But, this Family Day, I need to get a haircut and the expansion of this day off from a municipal holiday to a provincial one may mean my haircutters are with their family when I want to be with them in their chair. And I need to find a bath shop that is open. I need this day to have some functionality that is more like Easter Monday and less like Christmas Day. I will report back on what I find.