Last night, as I have done for the last three nights, I
maintained vigil on my waterlines to make sure they didn’t freeze by running
both the hot and cold water taps for at least 30 seconds every 2-3 hours. Yeah, sleep was less than ideal. However, I had it happen New Year’s Day 2018
when the temperature went to -7°F. It’s
been below 0°F at night since Wednesday night, and there’s just something about
waiting half a day for natural thaw and/or calling a plumber that made me
decide to go for the sleep deprivation option.
It almost worked. Had I not
slipped up and checked it at 6 AM, I might still have hot water. That’ll come back later today, though. You might say let the water trickle or use
heat tape on pipes for a better night’s sleep, but this is a unique situation
where anything less than a periodic full-on tap run will not work. Don’t argue with me – I get grumpy when I
haven’t had at least my normal night’s sleep.
But, I
digress. We turn to the south from here
in New York to a little town called Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. At around 7:25 this morning, they hauled the
groundhog/woodchuck/whistling pig/destroyer of gardens and lawns named Phil out
of his nice warm spot to go through the ritual of predicting how the rest of
the winter is supposed to go. This
morning, it was proclaimed that Phil did not see his shadow, which allegedly points
toward an early spring.
Yeah, right.
Much as I would like to climb on
that warmer and less snow and ice laden bandwagon, I have my doubts about
Phil’s forecast this year. Quite
frankly, with it being maybe 10°F down there in Punxsutawney at the time, I
think Phil was either hypothermic and couldn’t see or think straight, or he
just wanted to get back in his nice warm hutch and told the throngs of people amassed
there what they wanted to hear.
We’re supposed to be getting some
nice 40 and 50-degree weather here for the first few days next week. It’s sort of the January thaw we didn’t get
this winter. I’ll enjoy the warm weather
like everyone else. It’s a great little
respite. But I know that the 12” of
light fluffy snow that fell earlier this week will still be here after the
temperatures drop back down into the more normal 20s and 30s during the day and 10s at night later on in the week.
Some of the mountains of snow that were created by bulldozers and
front-loaders this past Wednesday will likely be there into March, if not until the
first day of spring.
Yes, Punxsutawney Phil is right in
that the weather will get better as time goes by. It will get warmer, the migrating birds will
return, the hibernators will come out of their dens, the grass will grow, the
trees will come into leaf, and the flowers will bloom. But I have a feeling it’s going to be on a
normal seasonal schedule and nothing sooner.
Sorry, Folks.
Only 46 days until Spring.
