Groundhog Day

In certain cultures, there is a strongly held belief that errant bloggers who post on Groundhog Day will continue to post regularly for the next six weeks (at least). So here goes:

Near my college apartment in Iowa there was an old rundown house lived in by a very frail old woman who rarely poked her nose outside the house.

One day when was walking by, I noticed what appeared to be a giant, truly enormous, rat sunning itself near the house's foundation.

Appalled, I stood there staring, trying to decide what to do. Clearly if I let the thing be, it would eventually kill the poor woman in her sleep.

I took a long time standing there marveling at the size of the thing, trying to decide whether I should walk back to my apartment to call the police, or wait and call from work, where I was headed.

Luckily a more worldly student walked by while I was deciding. "Hey, check out the groundhog," she said.

... I still wonder what those cops would have said.

And now I love groundhogs. (I just don't have any pics of them.)

PS I have a coworker whose birthday is today and I swear yesterday I heard someone ask her, "Have you always had your birthday on Groundhog Day?" God love her, she just said, "Yeah."