The Irony of the Groundhog

We have endured far too many days in a row with no sunshine. Every day, the same gray skies on bright, white snow. Occasionally adding a little fog to the view. That’s why we are all so ecstatic to hear that the forecast will be sunny – and almost 50° on Sunday. That sounds fantastic!

And then I realized… Sunday is Groundhog Day.

Wouldn’t you know it? The one day that we need the skies to be cloudy, and it’s going to be sunny! How can this be possible?

For those who are unaware -- and want to be in the know -- our friendly groundhog, who is also known as a woodchuck, is a rather large rodent belonging to the marmot family. He will be the one who decides our fate regarding the duration and intensity of our current winter season. Intrigued? Here’s how it goes.

This woodchuck hung out in our Maple tree
some years ago. Who knew they climbed trees?

If we are blessed with a sunny day when he peeks out of his burrow, the groundhog will be frightened by his own shadow, causing him to run back into his burrow. This behavior predicts that we will have to endure a much longer, cold winter. However, a cloudy day will send him happily on his way, and we rejoice that we will enjoy a shortened, milder winter season. The weird coincidence is that this often rings true! At least it does here with our local rodent predictor. I’m not kidding! I know. I keep track of these things.

I heard on the radio that PETA was protesting the treatment of Punxsutawny Phil, the most famous of these furry harbingers of good or bad news (depending on your perspective of winter). Anyway, they are saying that to disrupt this creature's natural rhythms for our entertainment is cruel, and that an animatronic groundhog should be created instead. Really? That really negates the whole idea, doesn’t it? How would that even work?

Then I read about our groundhog in Milwaukee, a captive bred fellow with a good life, who is a descendent of many previous generations of captive bred groundhogs who had good lives in these folks’ care. The staff explained how they begin to prepare the little guy to come out on his day. Groundhogs are naturally mostly hibernating this time of year, so they coax him out daily with a peanut. I think if I were hibernating I could be coaxed out with a peanut. For him, it works!

By Feb. 2^nd, it is completely up to the star to show up, or not! Our local marmot is not forced from his slumber, only lured out with the promise of a peanut – or peanut butter! – and that is usually all it takes for him to make an appearance. Then we base our hopes on an earlier Spring on how timid he is feeling that day.

So watch the skies tomorrow. It is predicted that we will actually see the sun after endless days of overcast skies.

Finally, we will see the sun on the one day that we really need clouds for our dear groundhog to promise us an early spring. 

Whatever happens, we hearty souls will endure. And perhaps we will begin to think ahead to a Springtime trip to somewhere that is warm and sunny. 

That’s my plan! Enjoy!