Margaret Bonnano once said, "Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time." So I wonder what it is when you're deficient in both?

For most of us there never seems to be enough time in the day or money in the bank. Or at least we don't feel like there is ever enough. The truth is most of us are rich in terms of time and money, especially in relation to the rest of the world.

While it's impossible to have more hours in the day, things like Daylight Saving Time and Leap Year give us the perception that we have a little more time sometimes.

As kids we learn, "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; all the rest have 31, excepting February alone; and that has 28 days clear and 29 in each leap year."

This past February included such an extra day, Feb. 29, because this is a Leap Year. What did you do with your extra day? Did you even remember you had some extra time?

Most of us probably went to work or went about our Friday routine. That's the way it usually is with extra time; the important bows to the urgent.

But on those occasions when a meeting is canceled or a ball game is rained out or an appointment is rescheduled, we suddenly inherit a block of time previously spoken for that is now extra time. I like those times. I know that technically it's not more time but it seems like it is because it's time that is no longer reserved.

Last Friday, June 20, was the longest day and shortest night of the year for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere. As the first official day of summer, at noon last Friday the North Pole was tilted farther toward the sun than at any other time of the year – 23 degrees 27 minutes north latitude for those who frolic in such details. This ring-around-the-globe marks the Tropic of Cancer, along which lie such exotic locales as Calcutta, Havana, Hong Kong, and Mazatlan.

I find it interesting that in this same year we're the happy recipients of some extra time, most of us are also receiving some extra money (actually it's our money to begin but that's another column).

Last month the government began sending economic stimulus payments to more than 130 million households in the United States. Those eligible will receive up to $600 (or $1,200 per married couple) and parents will receive an additional $300 per child under the age of 17.

That's extra money any way you slice it. Woohoo!

Last week the Creative Team at our church filmed a short "man-on-the-street" video whereby we asked people around town what they were planning to do with their extra money.

The answers were varied and included saving it, giving it away, spending it, and investing it. Some are just going to purchase gas with it. Our refrigerator went out last Friday so for us it was bye-bye economic-stimulus-extra-money check. Lowe's now holds me in highest esteem.

The next time you come into a little extra time or money, be grateful. And then be strategic in how you use it. For it is written, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."

Gothard is a columnist for the Daily Advance and can be reached at 75vette@coastalnet.com