Groundhog Day

If you’re unfamiliar with one of our more ridiculous traditions, allow me to fill you in. Some poor groundhog in Pennsylvania is yanked out of his slumber to predict when spring will come. If the groundhog sees his shadow, we’re in for six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow, then spring will arrive early. For people who can count, it’s always six weeks until spring officially arrives anyway, but I understand the appeal of hoping for an early unofficial start to spring.

In another context, there’s a Bill Murray movie in which every day is a repeat of groundhog day. This is the connotation I’d like to address. On Facebook, there have been a lot of posts saying that January was quite a year. Yes. Yes, it was. Between going to the doctor, falling several times, getting a a scary diagnosis and scheduling surgery, January was a difficult year for Lion. I’m looking forward to February being a lot calmer. As a matter of fact, if we have to continue today for a few weeks, I’m game.

The dog woke us up around eight this morning. I was in the middle of a dream so I was groggy. It was quite an effort to get out of bed to make breakfast. I don’t feel great but I don’t feel horrible. Lion has been seeing a little better lately. His ankle is still sore but a lot better than it has fe;t for a few days. Best of all, it’s Saturday. If we want to waste our day in bed watching TV, we can. I don’t want to tempt fate but so far so good.

Lion announced he was horny yesterday. He hadn’t slept much the night before and I was very tired too, so I didn’t think there was much chance of anything happening but we did snuggle a bit. He’s been studying his MRI and researching his condition and the surgery. Now we wait. In the meantime, we can play our Super Bowl game tomorrow and play in general until the surgery in about six weeks. I suspect Lion will want to be waxed prior to then since there won’t be any waxing going on while he recovers. We’ll prepare the house and Lion, and life will go on.

In some ways, it’s a relief to have a plan. In others, well, we wish it wasn’t this plan. But here’s to Groundhog Day. May it be as uneventful as it’s started out.

[Lion — I’ve been thinking about my lack of body hair. Part of my surgery involves needles being placed into pretty much every muscle group on my body. Happily, this is done after I’m unconscious. The point is to monitor my spinal cord performance. This means that the surgical team will be closely involved with every inch of me. I’ve been wondering if it wouldn’t be better to let my peach fuzz grow out. On the other hand, if I’m not waxed it’s still going to be obvious that I remove body hair. I’m trying to decide if I give a damn about it. The more I think about it, the less I care. Wax away, Mrs. Lion!]