February 4, 2010
“The groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears." -Bill Vaughn
Groundhog Day came and went without any fanfare for the groundhog who lives in the summertime in our backyard and presumably the same one that is wintering here now.
No men in black tails and tall hats arrived on our lawn on Feb. 2 to await his weather forecast. No bright spotlights or television cameras were here to record whether he saw his shadow.
You know, I'm sure, that Punxsutawney Phil gave his prediction this week at the annual world-famous event sponsored by The Groundhog Club at Gobblers Knob, Pennsylvania.
German tradition says that if a hibernating giant rodent crawls from his burrow and sees his shadow on Feb. 2, the Christian holiday of Candlemas, spring will not come early.
This year, his prognostication was bad news--six more weeks of winter.
Almost never wrong, this seer of all seers rarely misses and successfully predicts the weather, 98 out of the last 112 years, according to countless wire and radio news stories this week.
Curious, I watched from our window looking for Phil's relative that winters in our backyard. Would he emerge from his burrow like Phil to offer a clue if spring would come early in these parts?
He did not.
Presumably, our resident rodent was sleeping soundly and missed the holiday altogether.
We will see him soon enough though.
He is the same woodchuck, a giant member of the squirrel family, that chews the bark from our trees about 20-inches above the ground. The same one that enjoys biting big chunks out of vegetables in our small garden.
Last summer, I blamed his destructive ways on the deer; that was, until I saw him with my own eyes--a cute little bear-like brown, fuzzy creature that stands about two-feet tall on his hind legs. Thus, the chew-line on our trees.
Now, I know where he lives, too.
The entryway to his burrow is 12-inches wide with mounds of dirt surrounding it, an unmistakable clue that this is no rabbit hole.
I was waiting and watching for him on Feb. 2 and wondering if he would venture out of
his burrow to give us a local weather forecast.
It is possible he could be brilliant enough to predict the weather, I thought.
He could be smart enough to pretend he saw his shadow, disappear, hide, sleep for six more weeks, and wait for warm weather.
Then, he could be clever enough to chomp deliriously on cucumbers, gnaw the bark off young trees, eat the tops off carrots, and make his crimes look like the deer did it.
One more thing I should mention about our pernacious rodent interloper is that no manner or amount of rodent control known to man works on this guy.
I tried to convince him to move elsewhere, but he was far too stubborn.
He won the argument, so to speak. I guess he can stay, but I'd like him a lot better if he would predict an early spring. I am just saying though, he better not chew on the rhododendrons.
