Snowbound Rodents

First of all, HAPPY GROUNDHOGS DAY! Or is it Groundhog's that... does it belong to them, or celebrate a bunch of them? Whatever the case... I have a question.

How does the groundhog KNOW if he sees his shadow or not when he is buried in SNOW? It's all well and good for those New Englanders to traipse out Fat Phil, but REALLY, how did Phil GET the job as official groundhog, and even in Pennsylvania, or wherever he is, isn't it a lot to expect he will be happy plopped into six feet of snow?

And I've begun to suspect a TRICK of this day for the last few years... it seems to me Phil ALWAYS sees his shadow... I don't think it has anything to do with SUN at all. I think if they trot him out in DAYLIGHT, they call it a shadow. I mean when was the last time YOU remember that spring started on February 3rd? For ME, it was when I was in college, and that was only because we were desperate to have a base tan before spring break.


I DEMAND a more fair superstition be arrived at!

*cough *

But on the PLUS side...

I am having my first snow day since 2000. I thought maybe I'd reminisce about the LAST one... I moved from Portland, Oregon to Ann Arbor, Michigan in August of 2000. Portland, in the 12 years I lived there had half a dozen snows (all gone within 48 hours) and one ice storm, that admittedly, was a disaster. Winter in Portland typically was RAIN... sometimes miserably cold in the ability of the WET to get into your bones, but not, by comparison COLD.

My parents, still lived (then and now) in northern Idaho, so I got to visit snow a few times a year... and honestly, Mt. Hood was only a half hour a way, the peak of which (Timberline Lodge, where much of the Shining was filmed) has snow 11 months most years... I didn't MISS snow.

So we GOT here (to air you could SEE in summer... hello, humidity) and that first December in snowed... a lot... 9 inches, I think... and two days later, it snowed another 10. The University called a snow day... but ironically, I was also SICK (the two times in my life I've been sickest have BOTH been first winters in new cities... new germs, all that) but MAN that was a mess... and the temperature in Ann Arbor didn't go above freezing until MARCH... that MESS never melted. Just got dirtier and dirtier.

ToDAY, though.... I get to ENJOY my snow day!!! As I write this (last night) it is snowing hard, school has been canceled, and they are predicting 12 inches... If we GET it (update when I get up) it will be in the top 10 biggest one-fall accumulations in Michigan history.

On the Docket

I am EDITING... LEGACY is undergoing change per FEEDBACK... [Crikey, I'd like a snow weasel) I am putting in the specific changes suggested by the FABULOUS Leigh and Sketchie the Spaz (the only person I know who can give me a run for my money on being a NUT—but also LONG-TIME writer friend). I also have some comments that will need bigger level changes, but I want to get these in first... IDEALLY by Thursday I will have gone through them and can start the bigger ones... I'm shooting for SUNDAY for done THIS time... have one more reader and my own OUT LOUD, and then it should be ready...

I might write a query draft or two... I've decided those need a couple iterations and stewing time, TOO...


I will definitely shovel a little... I won't feel sufficiently immersed in stormness unless I do...

So I hope any of you caught in this storm are getting by fine and don't lose power (another possibility if I don't show up)  Don't go anywhere you don't have to!