Today people waited breathlessly for their resident celebrity gopher to pop out into the daylight so they could see if spring was right around the corner or if they’d be stuck with another six weeks of winter. Many were disappointed as pretty much every gopher I heard of on the news did indeed see its shadow, signifying that winter is not done with all of us yet (you folks in places like Los Angeles can hush. So can all of you in the Southern hemisphere, though I do not envy the 42C temps parts of Australia got last week either!).

Please. Disappointed? Really? I don’t care if you send out a gopher, a skunk, or a little dancing monkey who will do a soft shoe in the middle of a snowbank. I live in Canada. I live in the Eastern part of Canada, to be specific. Winter is NEVER almost over on the second of February. It’s also not over in March. If we’re lucky we see warm temperatures and spring conditions by April, but it’s not unheard of to wake up to a blizzard that month either. Last March 9th, I shared pictures showing exactly how much snow dumped down on us in one particularly memorable blizzard. And last April 13th I was considering a flight to L.A. to escape yet another snowfall.

So yeah. I wasn’t really expecting much with the gophers. If ever they *don’t* see their shadows and winter is actually over by February 2nd, I’d say it’s time to start worrying about the Apocalypse – keep an eye out for random horsemen.

Hayley was pretty let down by the gopher story. While she enjoys playing in the snow, it’s starting to get on her nerves, especially when it comes to the hassle of putting on snowpants, boots, scarves, and the like. Her precise words, in regards to how she felt about it were, “Winter sucks BUTT.”

Not exactly delicate and lady-like. But you can’t argue with the feelings behind the sentiment!