The frigid temperature of the Canadian subarctic smacked me hard this morning.

While one day closer to spring, the first day of February was not in anyway spring like in nature.

It made me think about tomorrow. I wondered if Mr. Groundhog would see his shadow or not.

And then as always, I fell into the usual confusion over what that actually means.

As I understand it, if the groundhog sees his shadow, we are supposed to have 6 weeks of winter. But if he doesn’t see his shadow, we still have 6 weeks of winter.

I don’t get it. I mean, winter ends on March 20th, which is 46 days from February 2nd. Which is six weeks….

My math skills may not be as profuse as they once were, but this whole concept is possibly due to the fact that by February, we are so tired of winter that maybe we feel that if we dress a small rodent in a top hat and tails, winter may be over a day earlier.

Or maybe people just have weird animal obsessions. And like to attribute magic powers to members of the squirrel family.

This year, I guess I’ll wait and see what my local groundhog, Balzac Billy, has to tell me about the state of the weather.

Either way, I think I can handle another 6 weeks.