Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day

by Renata Vallazza on Friday, April 24, 2009 at 5:09am

Pretty old blog, but it's funny!


Saturday, February 03, 2007

Weather Predictions?
Current mood: cold
Category: Life
February 2nd is a day somewhat well know in the U.S. as Groundhog Day.

Every year we Americans get to see that cute...little...furry thing come out of some Pet Carry Me Away designed to look like a tree stump with a door. Whether it be on TV, the newspaper or the Internet, we all see a pair of human hands yank the poor little creature out of his warm abode in order to predict whether or not there will be six more weeks of winter.

This event has been held in Punxsutawney, Penn. ever since 1886. The groundhog even has a nickname - Phil. What I find even more interestingly absurd is that there is a CLUB for this animal. I bet you can't guess what that clubs name is. It's the "Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle" WOW!!!!! (An "Inner Circle"? I wonder what they all do at their meetings?)

According to German lore, if any hibernating animal saw his or her shadow on Candlemas (aka Feb. 2) there would be six more weeks of winter. You pretty much know that if the animal didn't see its shadow, spring would instantly arrive. Why the poor groundhog has been chosen for this task in America, I would like to know.

So being that Groundhog Day was yesterday, I was watching CNN and reading on Yahoo that the animal did NOT cast his shadow. How exciting! We make our seasonal weather predictions on an animal that comes out of his Pet Carry Me Away for two seconds!

If I were a meteorologist, I think I would make my predictions on the birds. Screw what the weather was last year or in years past! Forget what some overgrown hamster in a cuter outfit says in Pennsylvania sees!

In fact, this past July when I was still living in Florida, I remember sitting on the sand at the beach with my friend Sarah when our conversation was interrupted by the sound of squawking and honking sounds. We look up and see several flocks of birds flying south.

It's normal to see birds flying south in the latter parts of summer, but to see it in mid-summer kind of freaked me out. I realize that what I'm writing may seem a little off the top, especially for those people who aren't special enough to know what birds flying south mean or who think I'm nuts. (I honestly don't care what you think of me. Just know that you all ought to lay off the happiness pills and smoke and things will clear up for you in many ways. ;)

I mentioned to Sarah "Oh, I think we're going to have an early winter AND it's going to be really cold"

Why is that? she asked me.

Being that I had just seen the birds fly south on the 12 of July and other days after that I noticed that more birds kept flying south, I figured that the last time I had seen that occurrence was sometime in late September or early October.

Well, less than a month later, I packed up my little Blueberry Mobile and drove home to Kansas (ick!). Two weeks after I moved back home, it got really cold. For someone who accustomed themselves to nice hot weather where you could run around wearing a bikini to having to wear sweaters and all sorts of other things, that was a shocker. And it has been a rollercoaster of weather ever since.

The day after Thanksgiving was nice and warm. 70 degrees! I was outside enjoying the weather since the weather here changes every five minutes and I was doing cartwheels because I was so happy and I twisted my ankle very badly. So much for nice warm weather. I still have problems with my ankle. No more dancing for me.....

The week after that, I got stuck at the St. Louis Airport (which is four hours east of Kansas City) during an ice storm where three inches of ice fell on the tarmac. Throughout my "ordeal" of waiting for my plane to arrive, I was bombarded by a Polish guy who was "fresh off the boat" and who wanted an American wife for the papers (I'm only repeating what he said) and had to listen to sirens go off for three hours, not to mention having no clean clothes to change into since my bags were on the plane. During that time, I was thinking of the local meteoroligists and how you really can't rely on their predictions.

Then there was last week.

Mike Thompson, KC's "top" meteoroligist predicted an inch of snow.

First of all, before I continue, I really don't watch local TV. I just hear about the news from my sister or the women at work. However, that forecaster has a pretty good run for X amount of years that he's been working here.

Five inches of snow fell.

Secondly, I hate cold weather. I hate snow. I hate ice storms. (The Midwest is pretty much the only place that I know of where ice pellets fall!) The exception to that rule of hating snow and ice was when my boyfriend came to visit me a few weeks ago. Now THAT I did not mind since all his flights got canceled and he got to stay an extra few days. ;)

However, on Wednesday, snow clouds rolled in and it began to snow. Watching the day get grayer and darker pulled my mood down. I burst into tears when I saw it snowing. It's funny, I don't cry at all, but the weather must have an adverse reaction on my mood. Like that Ben Harper song, "She's Only Happy In The Sun". I pity all those people in Washington State and in Seattle.

Did you know that Seattle has some of the highest suicide rates in the country? All because of the rainy weather 10 months out of the year. How weird is that?

Anyhow, so I was saying to make seasonal weather predictions on the birds.

Two weeks ago, I saw the birds flying north. In the middle of January. They normally don't start flying north until the latter parts of March or early April. Sometimes even later in the year.

What the summer is like here won't make much of a difference since I'll be moving back to the FLA again. And with that move, I shall never return to live. To visit, yes. But never to live.

Just a few more weeks. Can't wait for warmer weather!