Well it’s Saturday, the Saturday after Groundhog Day, and I’m hoping that everybody who reads this has seen the movie with Bill Murray about his adventure on Groundhog Day. Just in case you haven’t,  he is a weather forecaster assigned to cover  Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania for Groundhog Day. He hates the idea, and arrives early and spends the night in a quaint little bed-and-breakfast. But every morning he wakes up,  it’s the beginning of the Groundhog Day celebrations. And it’s hard to tell how long this goes on in the movie. Because he learns all these things during the period of repetitive Groundhog Day’s. They never give you a count or anything like that, which I think is rude. But anyways he’s repeating his groundhog day after day and as he’s repeating them he learns to save a child from falling out of a tree, stop a bank robbing, and learns to play the piano like a classical pianist, and seduce and fall in love with his producer that thinks he’s a big jerk, which he is at the beginning.

But I think the movie has a lot of interesting morals or things to consider. Like if you could repeat your life over and over again how would you change it and how would it change you?. It also makes you think if you’re doing the same thing over and over and over again, are you getting anything out of it. For the last 10 months and one week I have been leading a crew of EMTs from my factory to do temperature checks at the beginning of the first shift.   So everybody coming into the parking lot. Monday through Friday, and some Saturdays, we have been dutifully out there from 5 AM until 6:30 AM catching the majority of the first shift as they come in, looking for COVID. In those roughly 300 days we have not found a single person with a high temperature as specified in the CDC guidelines for COVID.  So when Groundhog Day came around February 2 this week, we all really wondered if we were stuck in some kind of time warp. Every day, 5 AM until 6:30 AM, leaning over to people’s car, saying “Good Morning”, flipped the thermometer near their face or neck, and then saying “Have a nice day”. Initially it was pretty monotonous and somewhat confrontational with some people.  But over the course of last year I think we all kinda got friendlier between drivers and temperature takers and it became more a mutual understanding and friendship. In bad weather days we talk about the weather and wish each other the best, and it doesn’t really feel so bad is it did initially.  The hourly guys  on my team are glad to have the overtime. I myself, have just been leaving work at 3 o’clock instead of 5 o’clock. And I like getting home early to play with Akela. On the other hand, I will look forward to when it ends.  My next Ground Hog Day will be much Different!

For today, we’re hanging around the house this Saturday waiting for visitors. Akela is having a guest over today. My niece, who formerly lived with me when I first moved down to North Carolina, is coming to town to visit her sister and is bringing her dog, Bonnie, who is the subject of previous posts here. So he is excited. But my niece being a millennial, tends to get here around 2 o’clock instead of 9 or 10 o’clock when she really could be here. So we are spending the day puttering around the house and cleaning up the kitchen from a week and a half of cooking and eating and just making messes. We’ve gotten about 2 dozen packages from Amazon for work delivered here and all the packing material and boxing and everything is all over the kitchen. So this is a good time to spend cleaning it all up.  And of course running the dishwasher and doing laundry goes along with everything else. Not sure I will mop the mud off the floor since Bonnie may track in her share anyway!!  DOGS!!

And when I clean I tend to play music.  I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and still like to stay in that era of music and songs. I do like a lot of today’s pop music, but when I really need motivation or a mental lift, I tend to return to the 70’s.  And my “go to” most favorite music for all occasions always comes back to John Denver and his love songs and songs for the environment and the wild mountains and outdoors.  Much of my life was influenced by him and his songs, TV specials, and charities. When I was in High School I tried to dress like him, sing like him, and I even bought a guitar to try to play like him.  I soon learned he spent practically every second of his life practicing his guitar style and writing songs.  So I decided I would enjoy him and his music and just try to live my life right.  40 yrs later, 25 years since his death, I still find him unequaled by any recent artist in my love of his music.  There is something in his message, his delivery, and just the outright “Invitation to sing” along is unparalleled. So if you aren’t familiar, or you need a boost.  Play “Anne’s Song”, or “Follow Me”, or “Mathew”… you might have a better day afterwards!!  Hope I didn’t get too corny!!  Have a great Week !

Stay Safe Folks,

Rick & Akela