I hate Phil

I'm speaking of this Phil. The furry little rat from Punxsutawney saw his shadow, which means six more weeks of winter.

And while I'm not of the superstitous variety, I put more stock in his weather foretelling then I do of any of the bozos that are on TV. I've always said it must be nice to be a professional weatherperson. You are charged with the task of making best guesses about the weather, you never have to be correct because there really isn't any way to be sure, and you get paid to work people up into a tizzy.

I don't hate winter. But I'm trying to convince the guy I sit next to at work to shoot Phil. (He's an avid hunter and quite skilled. But he only kills what he can eat and he's not convinced that Phil will be tasty. I tried telling him that with enough garlic anything is tasty but he just shook his head and turned away. Clearly I'm not going to win the argument.) But I do miss being able to open the windows in my studio (particularly when I'm using E6000 glue and getting stoned off the fumes) and walking the Dooley dog in the evenings.

Having lived in Michigan my whole life I'm pretty well committed to the idea of having snow well into May. But I'm wondering if we managed to take out the furry rat and he couldn't see his shadow anymore if we'd have a better shot at shorter winters. I love animals but not this one. I believe he was put here on this earth to make people on this side of the country miserable. I want a recount. Or whatever you call it. A reshadow? Something. Or a new animal. I bet a dog wouldn't be this cruel.

Damn groundhog.