So here it is.
It’s a week after Groundhog Day and it is supposedly going to be spring sooner than we think.
I don’t know about you, but I think that there’s no way that’s possible. Here’s why:
1. Upstate New York doesn’t get warm until the middle of July.
I mean, that’s quite the exaggeration, but I don’t think I could ever walk through the quad of Syracuse in anything less than a heavy coat and my eyelids showing until about when we leave for the summertime because it never really hits that “beautiful spring day” temperature here.
2. There’s still tons of snow in the forecast.
I’m an avid believer in The Weather Channel, I always have been. I was that kid who watched the weather every morning when I got up for school, not because I wanted to check to see what I had to wear to go outside, but I really wanted to know what was going on with weather patterns all over the country (no, I’m not a meteorology major, should’ve considered it though). Next week in Syracuse (and a majority of the northeast) we’re getting hit by another snowstorm that will cause me to hide indoors for another week and not step out into the tundra unless I need food, water or class. See? That doesn’t look much like spring to me.
3. The poor groundhog is tortured (not literally, I’m being aggressive).
Have you ever woken up at 5 a.m. and watched the news channel that hosts Groundhog Day? They wake up Punxsutawney Phil at the crack of dawn from a little wooden stump in the middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania and check to see if he’s got a shadow following him or not. At first, I thought it was a myth and he just saw his shadow every year, but now I know they just rig it so every five to six years spring comes early for fun, when it’s really not changing at all.
4. Do you know how many cameras and floodlights are set up that early?
You can barely see one another at the hour they are waking this poor creature up, let alone see him as he is the size of my head. Therefore, I think with all the floodlights and the cameras flashing, it’s a bit impossible to tell if he’s seeing a shadow or not because there is always light directly on him, whether it’s artificial or the breaking dawn of the sunlight. Reporter's wake up early to beat the rush and get a good spot, hoping to get up close to Phil and see the shadow for themselves.
Poor, Phil. He just wants to sleep.
Spring will come, my friends. But let’s do ourselves a favor and make sure that we don’t wish away the beautiful snow, the bone-chilling nights where we stay in under a heated blanket and watch a good movie marathon of "Harry Potter," and bake some not-so-homemade Toll House drop cookies for the sole purpose of eating the dough and filling the house with the smell. Winter is beautiful, so why must we rely on a groundhog to wish it away or allow it to stay?
