An Early Spring

I’m probably totally alone in this one, but I love nice (warm) weather. It just makes everything that much better.

This past weekend it was approximately 70°F here in Atlanta, and it felt GREAT. My friend Heather and I went to the Piedmont Park Dog Park with her dog, Ilsa, and it was wonderful. The dogs were having a great time. We were having a great time. I even got a little sunburn on my face, which made me look a lot healthier but which threw off my body’s temperature balance like whoa. Regardless, totally worth it.

Alas, last weekend’s weather was just a tease, and we are now back to gray skies and the mid-40s. Although, I am counting my blessings because Georgia definitely got off easy this time (Sorry, rest of the country!). Also, I’m extra pleased because Punxsutawney Phil (the go-to source in groundhog predictions) and General Beauregard Lee (who apparently has a DWP [Doctor of Weather Prognostication] from the University of Georgia???) have predicted an early spring, and I am so ready.

Groundhogs look more like squirrels than you would think.

Groundhog Day is such a weird day. Wikipedia (definitely the most reliable source on the internet) says that there are two(ish) explanations for its origins: The first possibility is that it’s a European tradition (which the Pennsylvania Germans kept up in the United States) of using a bear or badger to predict the weather a few weeks shy of spring—around Candlemas if you’re Catholic and Imbolc if you’re Pagan. The other possibility is similar but has more to do with how a lot of confusion arose when they were trying to switch from the Pagan calendar to the Catholic one and people couldn’t remember/figure out when things were actually supposed to happen. So it became a tradition to allow an arbiter, in this case a groundhog or a hedgehog, decide. It all sounds kind of nuts, but I’m sure there are a lot of things that you do with your friends that you think are real clever or funny, but if it were to actually become a thing that people actually did, the origin story would be weird. Remember that.

Also, prior to this blog post, I was definitely calling it Groundhog’s Day, as in it belonged to the groundhog. Not correct. Just FYI.

In other news, this song is great, and it totally encapsulates my longing for spring. Now I’m just going to bask in the glow of this past weekend until spring decides to actually show up for real.