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I am convinced there are only three days a year where we are allowed to conduct anything of note in this province.

OK, maybe four, but that's it.

Have you ever thought about this specific provincial dilemma? Well, don't worry, I've done the worrying for you. So I must now provide an explanation, it's my duty.

Although farming is fifth on our list of money makers, this is still considered an agrarian province, therefore we must not conduct any provincial business during seeding, calving, inputs or harvest seasons. That means from mid-January to mid-June, and in spite of the fact there are only about 18 traditional farmers left in Saskatchewan, we must not hold or conduct anything of import so as to not irritate the harvesting or seeding farmer - or the Saskatchewan Roughriders - especially on game day.

It's useless to try to conduct any inquiry of import during summer vacation. That takes care of late June through to Labour Day and beyond. Apparently all decision making capabilities disappear in the official summer season. Government, supposedly the biggest business, shuts down. When they return, they require two to three weeks to catch up on their files that were being added to by the office minions who apparently were not aware of this tradition.

Of course cabinet changes, and so do their administrative staffs. New provincial boards get appointed, so they too, must be given time to get orientated. That'll take us well into October.

Technological changes always come in the fall and new equipment is introduced. It needs to be installed and taught and learned about. That has to be done by a hired contractor since the 13,334 people employed by the government, have no idea as to how to install stuff. So they wait until the contracted company can finish, then they must be "brought up to speed." That will require a three to six week training course, preferably provided by another contracted team of specialized educators who just happen to be located in Phoenix in November. Book an extra week for a family vacation.

We all know nothing gets done between December 15 and January 4, other than school pageants that are sorta premised on a Christian holiday. All government agencies must book off, otherwise it wouldn't look right.

Then we have this new tradition we have embraced called mid-winter breaks and made-up holidays, called Family Days or mid-season break for schools. These breaks are now as common as the summer disappearing acts and take up about the same amount of time. So we've now eliminated the possibility of doing anything of note from Jan. 6 to April 7 ... provided we've already had that other Christian break called Easter. If that comes a bit later, well then, you know it's now seeding time, and that's the busiest time of year (outside of harvest Aug 15 to Nov. 1) so no use planning anything of note. So there you have it. That's our Saskatchewan cycle ... four days to actually do something that isn't a school pageant, football or farming.

And when those meetings do take place, the longest and most animated part of the entire event becomes the period near the end when the assembled group of seven to 10 people can't decide when they should meet again, even if they do have a date scheduled.

"Nope, that doesn't work for me, I'm away at a conference."

"I have a wedding I gotta attend."

"I'll be in Mexico."

"Sorry, my wife'll kill me if I miss another anniversary, I'm out."

And we all know the rest of the story. An agreed on date is finally set and two out of the 10 won't make it anyway.

So in essence, dear diary, we have less than a week to get anything done in Saskatchewan. And it's not this week, so relax.