Six more weeks

According to Marmota monax, Seattle will next get some nice weather on, oh, about March 16.

Yes, today is February 2, the Feast of the Purification, also known in Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions as Candlemas day (when the church blesses candles for use in the coming year). Here in the good old Protestant U. S. of A., Candlemas is much more commonly known as Groundhog Day, or, in recent years, Bill Murray Play-It-Again Day. Groundhogs, also called woodchucks, live in flatlands. Seattle residents are more familiar with their upland cousins, the hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) and the Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus). These dudes are cuter -- in my opinion, of course, "cute" being in the mind of the beholder -- and they whistle seductively at you as you hike through their mountain habitats

The Groundhog Day tradition supposedly began in Celtic times, when blue-faced Fighting proto-Irish allegedly used as their prognosticating mammal either the badger or a "sacred bear." Yeah, right. We have lots of bears around here, but no one would call them "sacred," unless gluttony has become a sacred virtue rather than a deadly sin. Our bears wouldn't give you the time of day, let alone a weather report. And badgers are dandy, nature's civil engineers, but like most engineers are too busy poring over drawings and specs to notice whether the sun is shining.

In any event, in 2009 -- in Seattle -- the outcome was never in doubt. I find the irony devastating: In a city where many children question the actual existence of what the rest of you call "The Sun," today broke clear and bright, not a cloud in the sky. Any obese rodents who emerged from their hobbit holes let out a shriek and popped right back down inside for another six weeks of frightened snoozing.

Showers are forecast starting Wednesday.