snow in the South

It’s great to live in the South… for numerous reasons, but on my mind now is how we don’t take snow for granted.   A few days ago, we got about 5 inches of snow here in central Arkansas, and there are still things shut down.  There’s a lack of equipment for clearing roads and bridges, and we often see some degree of ice with these winter storms that produce snow.   The first night of the snow, I saw a local news program that was listing closings on the screen, and one said “City of Conway closed”.  🙂  I’m sure that was meant for the local government, but it was very accurate nonetheless.

I didn’t get to build my (long dreamed of) ginormous snow castle nor Snowzilla, but hopefully there will be other opportunities.  I did get to build a snowman, though, and he’s one tough snowdude.  He has his arms bowed up at his side, ready to fight, and he has a mohawk.  He could definitely beat up your snowman.

On a related note, I had some of the Buffet o’ Blog staff to my house last night, and upon leaving, one of them decided to make buttprints in the snow in my front yard.  Lots of buttprints.  I didn’t take a picture, but you can just imagine… (Yet stranger things have happened…)

caption contest, Barack Obama and John McCain

I realize we’re past the election between John McCain and Barack Obama, but they still have to work together occasionally (or at least they claim to be bipartisan).  Either way, who needs context for a caption contest, right?  This week’s photo features the two of them shaking hands while Obama makes an additional hand gesture.  Feel free to use creative liberty in writing a caption — it doesn’t have to be realistic, just funny.

As usual, keep your comments clean, and remember this isn’t the place for serious political rants.  You may make a short rant as long as it’s funny and relevant to the photo, but put your serious bloviating elsewhere.

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

What did we learn from Groundhog Day?

Well, Groundhog Day has come and gone, and what do we know?  According to Wikipedia, someone actually tracks this from various festivals, and 9 of the 21 groundhogs tracked predicted 6 more weeks of winter.   The most famous one, Punxsutawney Phil, predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  Also, to get scientific, the National Climatic Data Center reportedly has stated that groundhogs’ overall prediction accuracy is around 39 percent.  That doesn’t seem very good.   Although, I wonder how accurate most weathermen are…

But all this is a moot point anyway.  The official first day of Spring is almost 7 weeks after Groundhog Day.  And besides that, the whole thing seems backwards.   If he doesn’t seem his shadow, it means winter will soon end.   But here it was all cloudy and cold, looking and feeling very much like winter.  A sunny day would seem more like spring is on the way.  But what do I know?  I’m no groundhog (though I have been known to do some weather prognosticating from time to time).

Did you know Groundhog Day originally involved badgers or bears?  Today it seems widely accepted to use groundhogs, but that is changing in some parts:

In Alaska, February 2 is observed as Marmot Day rather than Groundhog Day because few groundhogs exist in the state. The holiday was created by a bill passed by the Alaska Legislature in 2009 and signed by then-Governor Sarah Palin that year.

Okay, the tradition is silly enough in premise.   I understand getting together to party and eat, but do people really take this seriously?  Apparently so, if the Alaska Legislature is going to waste the time creating and voting on a bill about it.  But I don’t know why…

On a more random note, in the video game Animal Crossing (the GameCube version), the mayor announces on February 2nd that it’s the day “the groundhog fairy comes around to give groundhogs to all the good little boys and girls”.   That’s random…

caption contest, Ronald McDonald in burned-out store

It’s definitely time for another caption contest.   This week’s picture features Ronald McDonald in a burned-out McDonald’s restaurant.  I really don’t know what happened here, and it doesn’t matter — we get to make up the context.   So think of funny stories / situations / jokes / puns / commentary / etc. that could go with this photo.

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)