How did we get ourselves into such a mess? We live by numbers but different countries speak a different 'number' language. By a change to the decimal system we conformed to world standards but what's the significance of ten?

The more logical system as defined by nature is twelve. The year is divided into 4 seasons each 3 months long. As I sit having my morning coffee, I note that darkness is lasting longer that it was.

Today (the day I'm writing this) is Nov. 21st, or one month to the shortest day of the year, December 21st. The rising sun (assuming clear, cloudless days) will continue to cross the window a few inches farther south on the horizon each decade.

On a trip to Ireland early in the summer many years ago my friend and I toured north from Belfast. At a point in the trip our hosts noted we had to head home even though it was still broad daylight. Ten or eleven o'clock at night was surprisingly still daytime.

Ireland was above the arctic circle, far north of where I used to live in Geraldton and the days were longer. Our hosts recognized that they still needed a night's sleep, the following work day being ominously close. At that time we were approaching June 21st, the longest day of the year, where there was no darkness above the arctic circle, the land of the midnight sun.

Living in the tropics the daylength was more logical. Children could be put to bed at 6.00 o'clock with the expectation they would sleep because it was dark. Numbers in Swahili made sense.

One o'clock [Saa moja] was the start of the day. Mid day or 12 o'clock was what they called 6 [Saa seta].

On route home we found ourselves farther north in Oxford England in mid summer. I could only maintain a daily schedule by retiring with the children. I of course fell asleep and the kids knew they were in trouble if they woke me up! Eventually they learned that six was sleeping time despite the fact it was still daylight.

Numbers were confusing in my career as a forester. Cruising (measuring standing timber) was based on chains, twenty chains being one inch on an aerial photo. Keeping track of progress we counted out units of 10 chains, (10 being 660 feet).

Moving to rural Ontario years later these distances made sense. Surveys were based on 10,000 acre units or 10 farms, each 20 chains by 50. Roads were established on a grid of 5 concessions and lines enclosing a mile and a quarter square. Even in a city these are identifiable to this day, i.e. Yonge St. to Bathurst, Bloor to St. Clair.

Our 10 acre property in Loretto is indicative of the old survey system, a piece of land roughly 200 feet by 2000, 10 acres approximating 435,600 sq. ft.

Confusing as the above is, it's simpler than feet and inches. Originally the British foot [12 inches] was the length of the monarch's lower extremity. Every change in monarchy necessitated a change in the measuring system.

Similarly the inch represented the monarch's first knuckle on his thumb, still a useful tool as an approximation. I tend to think in units of 9 inches, the distance from thumb tip to the end of my little finger.

Distance measurements are only the first problem for an old timer.

We as a society have converted to the decimal system. News broadcasts report snowfall in centimeters ( or millimeters, each 1/10 cm.) which I have to translate into inches, 10 cms being 4 inches, 30 cms a foot. I face the same dilemma on checking the temperature, reading a double scale.

Below 0 degrees is cold but what does -19 feel like? My background was in northern Ontario where the coldest days were - 40 degrees regardless of which scale I read.

This is a confusing era. I envy the younger generation growing up with the decimal system. My daughter living in Los Angeles is faced with American measurements.

I expect it will be one or two generations before Americans smarten up and switch to the world language of centigrades, and kilometers.