The Groundhog Day tradition in North America is fairly straightforward: if the groundhog sees its shadow on February 2, there’ll be six more weeks of winter. That part seems simple enough, but that wasn’t the part that I got wrong.

Apparently, when folks hear that there’ll be six more weeks of winter, they think “Oh no, Another six weeks of winter. That’s far too long.”

I, however, was thinking “Woohoo! Only six weeks left of winter. The snow will be melting by my birthday.”

The alternative is that the groundhog doesn’t see its shadow means that Spring weather could be only two to four weeks away. After living in Ontario and Michigan, it’s never occurred to me that having fewer than six weeks of winter was an option. I’m usually happy if there isn’t an April snowstorm.

I’m known for complaining that when I was a kid in England, we’d enjoy spring weather around mid-March. I’m still complaining, but not enough to move back to England. Or South.