groundhog day

I had some thought when my muggers were closing in on me with my wallet in my trembling hands behind my back, that maybe they would shoot me anyway, just because they were young kids, and maybe had guns, and maybe were nervous or maybe one of them wanted to show off.  If Mom's robber had had a harder time getting a gun maybe he wouldn't have used a gun in the holdup, maybe he wouldn't have done the holdup at all.  Did they ever catch the guy?

I imagine lead pipes are just part lead because, as you pointed out, lead is pretty soft.  You know the Romans had lead pipes.  Some people think that was one of the things that brought down the empire, although a lot of people think a lot of things brought down the empire. 

The radio just chirped that it's Ground Hog Day.  Well that one just slipped by, but I guess this evening on the local news we'll see our local dog and Punxsutawney Phil - my spellcheck doesn't like Punxsutawney, honestly, sometimes it can be so provincial - guy hoisted up in some politician's or zookeeper's arms, wriggling irritably.

Cloudy here.  Six more weeks of winter.  Oh hell it is always at least six more weeks of winter.  If winter ended in the middle of March in any year we would be deliriously happy, even more delirious on the top of the top of the hat atop the state of Michigan I imagine.  Maybe Groundhog Day means something in like the middle of Tennessee.  Surely it comes from Europe, I'm guessing England, sounds like the sort of thing the Brits would do.

Probably Pagan.  There is something called Candlemas, spellcheck doesn't like that either, a churchy holiday on the same date which probably proves that it is a pagan holiday.  Probably calls for more research, which reminds me I never did look up Gilgamesh.  I'm taking an index card and writing Gilgamesh on it and putting it on the keyboard right now.  Well not exactly right now, it would get in the way of my writing this post.  But as soon as I'm done, I promise.

Feb 2 is halfway between the Solstice and the Equinox, I do remember that from previous research.  And Easter just a week after that this year.  Oh I hate those early Easters, those baskets with the eggs and jelly beans and chocolate bunnies look so pathetic with that blizzard howling outside.

Maybe Ground Hog Day crept up on us so quietly because yesterday was the Iowa Caucus.  Of course I was tuned right in.  I called a Champaign buddy who I thought was a political junkie like me, but he was watching the X Files, thought that I was nuts.  But I love this stuff.

No big surprises.  The big girl and the socialist almost tied.  The weasel beat Trump by more than expected, and the real surprise was that the angry boy scout came in a respectable third.  Your man Rand came in a not very respectable fifth with half as many votes as loony Carson, but twice as many as the hapless Bush.

Well I have a Gilgamesh sign to write, and it's cloudy right now, but I think Greyhound time is somewhere around ten in the morning.