Happy Groundhog's day to all!

[Mrs Haruo]

I'd like to wish all Baptistlifers a joyous and festive Groundhog's Day. Particularly those who are dealing with a huge dumping of snow and cold weather. Stay safe and warm, if you can!

[Sandy]

I never really "got" Groundhog day, growing up in Arizona and having lived in the southern half of the US for most of my life, where winter is a matter of just a few days, maybe a few frosty mornings and some dustings of snow every now and then. Feb. 2 is meaningless when the end of winter is just a calendar date and you can wear shorts and short sleeves long before mid-March. Now, I live about an hour's drive from Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, and I can almost hear "hear ye, hear ye." We've had six to eight inches of snow on the ground continuously since Dec. 1, except for a couple of days, the snow pile in the front yard where I've shoveled the driveway a dozen times is probably three feet high, and we've had four days during that time when the daytime high exceeded 32.

I get it now.

[Haruo]

On the second day of Imbolc, the marmot said to me,
etc.

Happy Candlemas and all the other iterations.

[Haruo]

Tomorrow is (節分) in Japan.

[Stephen Fox]

The actress in Groundog Day.
She was Rosie at the time.

If Ms Haruo hasn't heard the story I will repeat it for her some time.

[Mrs Haruo]

Go ahead, Foxy, Repeat.

[Dave Roberts]

According to the best scientific studies (U of PA and others) the PA groundhog is right 39% of the time. That makes him 61% wrong, but it's fun to watch people drag the befuddled critter out of his den and have a little winter amusement. It's their exercise in hope that winter will someday end.

[Tim Bonney]

[Dave Roberts]

In the Midwest, you only have pararie dogs, not groundhogs, as far as I know.

[Tim Bonney]

[Mrs Haruo]

Mebbie they is called "Squinties" cause they squint when they comes outta the ground?? When I was a kid, the woods was full of gopher holes, and we kids would get together and dig "Camps" in vacant lots, which were mostly wooded around here, and a "camp" was basically a kid sized gopher hole dug with whatever tools you could come up with, then covered with whatever scrap lumber you could find. The big project was getting a hole dug big enough and covered over before it started raining again and the hole was to wet and nasty a mess to play in. Just come home in time for dinner, dear.