New Month, New Attitude

Well, February is finally here.  It snuck by me yesterday while I was enjoying my bubblebath.  In North America, today is Groundhog Day.  For reasons that have never been explained to my satisfaction, on this day grown men dress formally and consult a rodent that just happens to be hanging around, to see how much longer winter will last.  I have no idea why men feel they have to dress up to consult a rodent.  Apparently wherever this happens, people in the audience (why would you watch someone talking to a rodent?) also dress like groundhogs.  I have no idea where they get the groundhog suits either.  Probably home made, but the same kind of woman who makes a new fuzzy halloween costume for her children every year.  Oh well.  The entire phenomenon is perfectly described in the movie "Groundhog Day" starring Bill Murray.  It's very funny.
 

Whatever the groundhog decides is based on whether he sees his shadow.  As I seem to be mentioning on a regular basis in my blog, we haven't seen more than a few hours of sunshine in what feels like years.  Therefore, I cannot imagine that even the most timid groundhog found something like his shadow following him around this morning.  This means that officially, we will not have an additional 6 weeks of winter.  Far be it from me to point out that winter never actually happened this year, and from the amount of rainfall that we've had, spring could actually have been declared around the first week of January.  So far, 2012 in Ontario has behaved like an extended March, not our usual winter weather. Of course, since men in formal suits followed by people dressed up like groundhogs may not be the most rational forecasters, let's keep our fingers crossed!

The biggest reason to celebrate as far as I'm concerned is that January is over.  It's starting to be a little brighter in the mornings now, it's not dark as early as it was a few weeks ago.  SInce this is a leap year, we still only have 27 days left in February, and then we'll slide into March.  February can be very unpredictable in Ontario, regardless of what the groundhog tells us.  We could still have a couple of bad winter storms, and get dumped with several inches of snow.  But we know that the worst month is behind us now, and we're picking up momentum as we head for spring!

I picked up a copy of "Fifth Victim" today.  Its written by Zoe Sharp, and the protaganist is Charlie Fox.  Charlie is a female bodyguard and ex-Special Forces soldier.  Her world is very well described, and her voice is unique.  I always enjoy her adventures, and her attitude, and I'm counting on her to distract me from missing my sweet Chester.  We're starting to look for another cat under a year old, since Tugby is missing his buddy so much. I'll let you know how it goes.