BACK IN THE BURROW
Yesterday, Punxsutawney Phil (was) returned to his burrow from which he (was) emerged, to let us all know it's still winter for a while. Even in Hawaii. PP is a part of my childhood; I have roots in that neighborhood of Pennsylvania Germans. Imagine my surprise when he became a national phenomena (mostly due to the movie), but he is not well understood in Hawaii. So I always bring my plush stuffed Phil to work on Feb. 2 to spread groundhog/whistlepig/marmot/woodchuck/ground squirrel awareness. Everyone in the office insists he's really a rat, a beaver or possibly an overweight mongoose. (You could get a nice one too, although mine is actually a marmot acquired on a trip to Pike's Peak in Colorado. He kept us good company when the transmission on the Explorer went out about a mile from the summit.)

Groundhog Day is co-located in time with the Catholic feast day of candlemas (40 days after Christmas) which celebrates Jesus as a "light to the world." There is a purification after childbirth reference too, and it is supposed to be when Christ was presented at the temple. There's that light thing again, solstices and other pagan seasonal markers, but I never understood why the groundhog would go back in his hole when he saw the sun. He's afraid of his shadow! I guess he would like to live in Seattle. Of course, I tend to pull the blanket over my head when the sun comes in the window in the mornings, especially on days I have early meetings scheduled. I return to the burrow; let me -- and Phil --get up when we want to.