{"id":16442,"date":"2017-02-01T17:51:56","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T22:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16442"},"modified":"2017-02-01T17:51:56","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T22:51:56","slug":"inside-aurora-groundhog-daze-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-groundhog-daze-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Groundhog Daze 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was early February, and I was taking what I hoped was one of my last strolls of winter through the Aurora Arboretum.
\nSpying a small figure perched on a bench, I quickly realized that it was Aurora Annie, our Town\u2019s weather prognosticating groundhog. As I got closer, I could see she looked depressed.
\n\u201cHi, Annie,\u201d I said, sitting down next to her. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful day. Why so glum?\u201d
\nWith a sigh, she announced; \u201cIt\u2019s global warming.\u201d
\nI wasn\u2019t expecting this. Climate change seemed a big issue to be occupying the mind of such a small individual.
\n\u201cWhy\u2019s that? Are you concerned about potential draughts and the impact on crops?\u201d
\n\u201cNo.\u201d
\n\u201cHow about rising water levels and increased flooding?\u201d
\n\u201cI hadn\u2019t thought of that.\u201d
\nThen, she suddenly sat up, eyes wide.
\n\u201cI live in a hole in the ground.\u201d
\nJumping to her feet and waving her arms at the surrounding landscape she continued, \u201cThis is all flood plain!\u201d
\nTrying to calm her increasing sense of panic at this new thing to worry about, I quickly changed the subject of a potentially watery future.
\n\u201cYou suggested something else about global warming was on your mind?\u201d
\n\u201cYes,\u201d she said, sitting down again. \u201cIt\u2019s my annual weather predictions. They\u2019re getting impossible.\u201d
\n\u201cBack in the old days,\u201d she explained, \u201cwinter would arrive, and that season would be with us for a few months, consistently cold and snowy. Then, it would warm up for good and be spring.\u201d
\nShe paused, gazing off with a nostalgic faraway look into seasons past.
\n\u201cAnd now?\u201d I prompted, after a long pause.
\nShe shook her head to come back to the present.
\n\u201cNow the weather see-saws all over the place. This year, December was freezing, with lots of deep snow. Then January was warm with lots of fog and rain, and pretty much melted off all the snow. Now February looks like it\u2019s getting colder again.\u201d
\n\u201cI know spring will be here eventually,\u201d she concluded, her eyes welling with tears, \u201cbut with all these periods alternating between hot and cold, how am I ever supposed to predict if it will be early or late?\u201d
\nWe sat quietly for a minute. I watched the progress of a lady walking her dog on the trail further up the park. Annie sniffed heavily, and blew her nose into a tiny handkerchief.
\nThen an idea struck me.
\n\u201cMaybe this is a blessing, not a curse,\u201d I said.
\nShe looked over at me.
\n\u201cSure. You could use this global warming to your advantage.\u201d
\n\u201cHow\u2019s that?\u201d she asked, with a pleading look.
\n\u201cYou know, that the new normal is that winter is going to cycle through warm and cold spells.\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cSo whatever you predict, you\u2019ll be right.\u201d
\n\u201cAnnounce that spring is coming\u201d, I continued, warming up to the subject, \u201cand you\u2019re covered, as we\u2019re bound to get a balmy spell. Predict we\u2019re in for a longer winter, and you know no matter how warm February may get, there will be a coolish dip in temperatures at least once more before it warms up for good.\u201d
\n\u201cYou\u2019re right either way,\u201d I concluded.
\n\u201cThat may work,\u201d she said, obviously running the various scenarios through her mind.
\n\u201cI\u2019m confident that it will,\u201d I said, giving her an encouraging smile, and receiving one in return from my furry companion. \u201cYou\u2019ve got nothing to worry about.\u201d
\nWell, maybe she did have to worry about her burrow flooding in the spring thaw. But now that she\u2019d finally cheered up a bit, I wasn\u2019t going to remind her about that.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston It was early February, and I was taking what I hoped was one of my last strolls of winter through the Aurora Arboretum. Spying a small figure perched on a bench, I quickly realized that it was Aurora Annie, our Town\u2019s weather prognosticating groundhog. As I got closer, I could see she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4hc","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 05:38:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}