Snow Days

I love the snow. Not the wind or the cold that comes with it - just the snow. I particularly enjoy sledding the driveway, that is when I don't have a nasty cold and a dreadful cough that is grinding me into the dirt. Since I need to get well as quickly as possible I am leaving the "playing in the snow" to Buggy and her friends.

Ground Hog Day!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Ground Hog Day, the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray is one of my least favorite movies of all time. Even now, when I think of that film, or Ground Hog Day or Bill Murray, I'm swept with the same aggravation that I experienced when I watched the film for the first time. I have never been a fan of repetition (sounds, music, banter, etc…) and this movie, where Bill Murray is forced to relive the same day, over and over, is nothing short of (in my opinion) a living hell.

The only upside of this day is Punxsutawney Phil – a groovy little creature that the entire country looks to when trying to determine if Spring will come early or if there will be another six weeks of Winter. According to Wikipedia, “The Groundhog Day celebration is rooted in a Celtic tradition that says if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on February 2, the Pagan holiday of Imbolc, winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend says spring would come early. The ties in Pennsylvania may have actually come from the Germans, when clear skies on Candlemas Day, February 2, was said to herald cold weather ahead. In Germany, the tradition morphed into a myth that if the sun came out on Candlemas, a hedgehog would cast its shadow, predicting snow all the way into May. When German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania, they transferred the tradition onto local fauna, replacing hedgehogs with groundhogs.”

Here in Washington State, where nothing casts a shadow in February (because there is no sun), Buggy is our gauge. And since she refused to go outside today, it was obvious that we are in for another six weeks of Winter.

Stay warm!

Rebecca & Buggy