Groundhog Day 2010
Day 1
Again the Blues
Day 2
Again the Battery
Day 3
Only the Groundhog Knows
Day 4
A Little More NR
February 3, 2010
I stuck with US-40/National Road to Zanesville then took US-22 all the way
home. The photos stopped at Zanesville.
February 2, 2010
It was a long cold wait for the crack of dawn but it was a cool (ho, ho,
ho) experience. No early Spring this year, says Punxsutawney Phil.
February 1, 2010
The combination of blues, February, and Columbus did in another battery.
But the car was made whole and took me to lunch in Hubbard and a beer in
Punxsutawney. Tomorrow's the big day.
January 31, 2010
110 blues bands last week in Memphis. Twenty blues bands Friday &
Saturday in Cincinnati. Four blues bands today in Columbus. At least I'm
cutting back.
Prelude - January 30, 2010
I've always liked Groundhog Day but it isn't, as I once enjoyed believing,
a holiday invented purely to bring business to a small Pennsylvania town.
Like Christmas and Easter, there is a Christian holiday underneath all the
commercialism. February 2 is also Candlemas and the Celtic Imbolc festival
was around even before that; just like Saturnalia and celebrating the
Spring Equinox preceded Christmas and Easter. The idea of predicting the
end of winter with an animal's shadow didn't start in Pennsylvania,
either. People have long claimed that sunshine at the midway point between
Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox did not bode well for an early Spring.
So, even though the people of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, have been doing
their Groundhog Day thing since 1886, they didn't really invent it. They
-- and Bill Murray -- have done a mighty fine job of promotion, however.
This year I'm using my newly acquired freedom to head to Gobbler's Knob (always wanted to say that) in Punxsutawney. I'd already half planned on attending a blues tribute in Columbus on Sunday so will move on to Punxsutawney from there. On top of the three days of non-stop blues in Memphis last week, I'm attending the Cincy Winter Blues Fest on Friday and Saturday nights. I should be ready for a break from the blues when Groundhog Day rolls around.