Susan Keene Author

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Ground Hog day and other thoughts

Posted on Feb 2, 2023 by   2 Comments | Posted in Uncategorized

Ground Hog Day

Today is Ground Hog Day. It is also Farrah Faucet’s birthday. When the kids were growing up, Farrah was a hot commodity. I can’t forget her birthday because the boy across the street loved her.

There wasn’t a spot in his room not covered with her picture smiling down at him from a poster on his wall. She died the same day Michael Jackson did so she didn’t get the publicity she would have if she hadn’t had to share the spotlight with the King of Pop.

That isn’t what this post is about. I wanted to talk about winter, Ground Hogs and the change in the climate.

This is the 127th official Ground Hog Day. On 107 of those the ground hog saw his shadow. Six weeks from today is the week of March 16th..  . The average temperature in Springfield in March is from 47 to 53 degrees.

Since all things are relevant, it will depe

nd on the temperatures the weeks before March 16th as to whether we consider it spring or not. I remember one year in January it stayed below 0 for eight days. The first day it got up to thirty-five, no one wore a jacket.

What I’m getting at is that Ground Hog Day is a cute tradition much like the annual pardon of the Thanksgiving Turkey. I, for one. Look forward to it each and every year.

I listened to a pundit on television say that there is no climate change, or global warming. His logic was, Look at all the days it freezes in the winter.  I don’t want to put myself in the middle of a controversy but I will say, there is a huge difference between an event and a trend.

If I make a hole-in-one at the golf course, it is an event. If I make one every time I go to play golf, it is a trend. I hope that is a good analogy. I will put up another one. If I drive home down H

ighway 44 for 100 days in a row and on the 101st day I take the back road. One is a trend and the other is an event.

An event is a week of 100+ temperatures in June. A trend is when the temperature in the Artic gets warmer and warmer and the polar ice melts year after year

and doesn’t get cold enough, long enough to change the pattern.  Okay, enough of that. I really am not trying to preach to anyone.

We have ice ages, and warm periods. We change from one to another every 100,000 years and have for the last million years.

Now I’m not a scientist, I’m a writer. But just as everyone can’t write a book, everyone can’t understand and study the earth. I’m one who does not study science.

It has been proven, carbon dioxide causes these changes and none have ever happened without a catalyst.

It is pretty much the limit of my knowledge.

Feel free to chime in. I realize the warm period the earth is in now will not remain forever. I also don’t want to rush it.

Let me know what you think.

One more thing. I’ve been seriously thinking about buying an electric vehicle. The other day when there was an 84 car pile-up somewhere in this ice storm, more than one person had to stay in the cold several more days because their electric cars would not hold a charge. Also after 3 days in the cold, the battery went dead and there was no place to plug it in. Everyone with a total electric car had to be towed somewhere to charge the car.

I think I’m going to wait until they figure all of this out. Meanwhile, I will consider a hybrid.

( if you don’t like the way your day is going-try to change it.}

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 Responses to "Ground Hog day and other thoughts"

Comment by bbettis1hotmailcom
February 3, 2023 11:16 pm

Every year, I just hope that darn Ground Hog doesn’t see its shadow–but I know it really doesn’t matter. As someone once said, “How could it not see its shadow with all the TV lights on it ” LOL.
I think the reason I do hope for a ‘good sign’ from Phil is that by the time February arrives, I’m ready for a little encouragement that Spring is around the corner. It’s just such a darn long corner! What’s really depressing is to see a robin pecking around in the snow. Four short weeks–it’s coming 🙂

Comment by Coffeeconfusion
February 6, 2023 2:15 pm

However old the earth is, and, of course, we’re all guessing, we’ve been recording temperatures in a scientific way for less than 200 years. How are we to know what cycles the earth goes through for that short of a time period? Scientists examine their data and guess what happened and what will happen. I wish I could say they don’t have an agenda, but so many grants are tied to climate change. And while they’re quick to release the picture of a polar bear trapped on a tiny iceberg, when the ice is back to its usual thickness, are they as quick to report that? Power and greed are strong motivations.

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