Groundhog day and stuff

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. As Punxsutawey is not far from Pittsburgh, I’m sure that if they can entice the Groundhog to leave his burrow, he’ll be sporting a Steeler scarf. Most-likely, if the weather in Western Pennsylvania is anything like it is here tonight, our favorite rodent will sleep in. Tomorrow would be a good day to watch the movie Groundhog Day. Had I planned ahead, I could have ordered it from Nexflix. It’s a movie I could watch over and over again… Wait, watching the movie, you watch it over and over again. Having Andie MacDowell in it keeps the repeats from being too boring.

The wind is really howling and the chimes on the back porch are singing. If they stop, I’ll probably mean they’ve blow away and are on their way to Sault Saint Marie. The blizzard that everyone has been talking about for the past few days is finally here. They’ve already closed all the schools which is nice as it means we don’t have to get up and check in the morning. No one is going out except for me. I had to go find a battery for my daughter’s anemometer, not really an emergency, but hey, if the wind is howling it’s nice to know if it was a 25 or 45 mph gust. Besides, there weren’t many people in the store and I was waited on by a kid who seemed happy to have something to do. From what he said, they were busy before. There was one other guy complaining that all the whole milk was gone and he couldn’t bring himself to drink skim mile (I’m the other way around, drinking only skim and thinking 2% taste like heavy cream). The assistant manager said that he could take two ½ gallons and be charged the same as a gallon. The wind was blowing so hard that by the time I got home, fifteen minutes later, the tracks I’d made between my house and truck had already filled in.

Before my outing to the store, I went skiing on the cusp of the storm. The storm was just coming in and it was fun to watch the boiling clouds and to listen to the haunting sound of the wind as it blew through the bare hardwoods. The wind was chilling, especially up on top of hills. It wasn’t bad when my back was against the wind, but when I had to go against it, blowing snow pelleted against my face and stung. It was exhilarating to be out in the weather.

Back to the groundhog, a friend dropped off this picture of Punxutawey Phil with his Steeler scarf. Underneath the photo was this sentence. “Another 52 weeks as world champions.” Here’s hoping that’ll happen whether or not Phil comes out tomorrow morning. The photo below is from my afternoon ski.