Groundhog Day!

I am a huge fan of Groundhog Day – and I’m not even sure why – I never even know that the day is the day until well into the thick of the day . . . maybe it is the silliness of the whole thing – or the fact that it involves this big rodent – who in my mind is wearing a top hat and a stop watch – that comes out of a stump to tell us the weather. My mind almost breaks (in a good way) at how ridiculously good it all is . . .
Here is what the Punxsutawney Phil wiki has to say:

Punxsutawney Phil fans say that there is only one Phil (all the other groundhog weathermen are impostors), and that he has made weather prognostications for 121 years as of 2007. They say that every summer, Phil is fed a sip of the mysterious Groundhog Punch, which magically lengthens his life for seven years. This is done by Inner Circle members. According to the Groundhog Club, Phil, after making the prediction, speaks to the Club President in “Groundhogese”, which only the Inner Circle appear to understand, and then his prediction is translated for the entire world.

He drinks Groundhog Punch?!? Jeez – what rock do I live under? Where can I get a sip of that stuff – and what effect will it have on me??

And I will admit that I did check to see if Phil had a myspace account where he could hold court with his weather predictions to the unwashed internet masses – but all I was able to find was able to come up with was his personal website (punxsutawneyphil.com) – which is either shockingly bad – or just good on some other level that I can’t even figure it out.

Here is what the Groundhog day wiki has to say:

Groundhog Day is a traditional festival celebrated in the United States and Canada on February 2. It is a cross-quarter day, midway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox.

In traditional weather lore, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow because the weather is bright and clear, it will be frightened and run back into its hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks.

The result today was that Phil did not see his shadow – which means that we get an early spring. And for the record – Phil was wearing a little black arm-band that had a simple capital “B” on it in memory of his recently departed “super-horse” friend Barbaro . . .

1 reply
  1. bumpercar
    bumpercar says:

    Yeah the last part – maybe not 100% true – but I know that I have my little black arm-band on . . . on my heart that is . . . poor poor Barbaro . . . we barely even knew ye a bit.

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