Groundhog weather and frozen Hoosiers

This blog has been edited and comments on this particular blog have been disabled because some readers want to read more into this personal opinion piece than was intended. -- Nick Schneider

Hats off to Punxsutawney Phil -- the famed groundhog weather prognosticator who ventured out from his "homey hole" in a place called Gobbler's Knob Punxsutawney, Pa., on Wednesday morning and didn't see his shadow.

As lore goes, if you believe in this sort of thing, winter will be short and pleasant and springtime weather is right around the corner -- about six weeks away as tradition has it.

If the bucktoothed rodent has seen his shadow, then we could have expected six more weeks of winter -- which is something very few of us in this part of the Hoosier State really want.

Looking outside, that's a relief on this icy, cold morning when the temperature on the sign in front Bloomfield State Bank branch at Linton read 13 degrees on my drive in to the office Friday morning.

The Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper is credited with printing the news of the first U.S. observance of Ground Hog's Day in 1886 -- one year before the first legendary trek to Gobbler's Knob.

The groundhog day tradition stems from the Candlemas Day and the days of early Christians in Europe, at a point mid-way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.

For centuries the custom was to have the clergy bless candles and distribute them to the people who would light them in each window of their homes to ward off the darkness of mid-winter.

Some say this recent storm to hit the area, in terms of damage to utilities and the like, is comparable to the Big Blizzard of 1978.

This has been a tough week and a long winter so far, and to be honest, we are all sick and tired of this weather.

Thank you Bob Smiley

Former Indiana State University professor Bob Smiley from Linton, who's wintering in Florida during our frigid winter blast, sent me this great little poem that I am sure our readers in this neck of the woods can relate too -- especially with the recent weather we are experiencing.

It reads:

It's winter in Indiana and the gentle breezes blow,

70 miles per hour at 52 below!

Oh, how I love Indiana when the snow's up to your butt;

You take a breath of winter air

And your nose is frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful,

You may think I'm a fool.

I could never leave Indiana ,

Cause I'm frozen to the stool.

Nick is assistant editor for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at 847-4487 or 1-800-947-4487; by e-mail at schneider.nick@gmail.com .