The Hopes Of A Nation Rest On A Single Groundhog

Well, not an entire nation, since Hawaii probably doesn't care, and for all I know, Punxsutawney Phil is married.But everyone I know is going crazy waiting for this winter to end. It's the longest January on record, since it started right after Christmas, and seems to be going smack into February.

February has enough problems. It doesn't need to be annexed by greedy 31 day long January.

I like February, even if nobody else does (and it rarely wins popularity contests). It's a teeny tiny month, and fewer babies are born in it than any other month of the year (which makes sense because it has fewer days, but it also seems to have a fewer babies per day ratio as well), and, of course, my birthday falls just past the halfway mark. So I have something to look forward to until Feb. 17, and then after Feb. 17, I have spring to look forward to. I firmly believe spring starts on March 1, although it never seems to work out that way.

This year my goal for my birthday is to get the first draft of Hart finished. I'm really getting tired of outlining and reoutlining and rereoutlining it. Last night, I spent hours trying to shove the material into some kind of chronological order. For a book with minimal chances of publication, it's burning up a lot of energy (alas, not a lot of calories, which at least would justify the amount of time I'm spending on it).

I had thought I'd be doing a lot of writing on it this week, especially since I'm spending most of the week being snowed/sleeted in. But my mother managed a trifecta on Monday. Her hearing aid broke, she set fire to the microwave, and she fell. I don't know how long she'll be without her hearing aid, but Marci is going to bring her a used microwave tomorrow, and my mother wasn't hurt when she fell. So it could have been a lot worse, but it still took a great deal out of all of us. Which is my excuse for outlining rather than writing.

Oh well. I keep looking out the window trying to find some sunlight. At least there was none for good old Phil. That's one bright spot in this otherwise dreary week!