Is that groundhog driving a car?

Bill Murray and Friend from the movie “Groundhog Day”

A.K.A, Imbolc.

Or St. Brigid’s Day.

Or Super Bowl weekend. Which could be Clydesdale-less, except for this. It all depends upon where you live.

Whatever the case, this midwinter holiday—as in, “It’s only February? Really?” – has undergone an occasional rebranding.

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m pretty sure Bill Murray’s character in the movie handed over the steering wheel to that groundhog about ten months ago and is still letting the fuzzy rodent drive.

What I’ve been doing for the ten-month long Groundhog Day  

Mostly taking online courses, Zooming away, and working on complicated revisions for my novel. When the weather was nice and not icy or muggy, I hiked every day at a YMCA day camp property.

I don’t stream TV as much as the average bear, but the three toy Baby Yodas around my desk suggest I’m a bit obsessed with The Mandalorian.

(Note: I didn’t use the baby’s name. #Spoilers )

(Disclaimer: MacGuyver works from home for Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer division. FWIW, he has no insider news whatsoever about what’s next for The Mandalorian. What he shows me, I’ve usually seen already on Instagram.)   

After my riding lesson barn locked down with everything else, it reopened later in the spring only to close its lesson program to non-boarders. Because the owners are riding instructors, they didn’t need my favorite instructor, so they let her go.

Had they not, I’d planned to ride masked, but MacGuyver and I are both high risk, so I would’ve had to quit anyway. Again.

In mid-summer, my instructor friend invited me, masked, to visit her and her teenage daughter at the backyard barn where they board the daughter’s small sorrel Shetland.

Since then, I’ve gone once a week to groom the pony. The four other boarded animals include an elderly llama.

Here’s a photo of my pony friend, with an Augmented Reality helper who’d probably enjoy time with a pony considering the stresses of running away from bad guys in a galaxy far, far away:

Photo by Rhonda Lane and Augmented Reality character by Google. The pony is real. So is the snow.

How are y’all coping with a year of Groundhog Day/s?

We all could use some more ideas, right? I’m so aware I’m lucky. MacGuyver and I enjoy each other’s company, as well as that of our three cats.

Read any good books lately? Here’s my list, depending on your taste:

• THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman is a lot of fun.
• Former turfwriter-turned-historian Maryjean Wall’s history of Kentucky titled HOW KENTUCKY BECAME SOUTHERN gave me a lot of food for thought. #BookResearch
• My comfort read was Natalie Keller-Reinert’s recently released RUNAWAY ALEX, which prompted me to revisit her entire Alex and Alexander series, a hybrid of romance, New Adult, and womens fiction.

Someday, I’ll be business savvy enough to put affiliate links there, but not yet. 😉

What are you watching on TV?

• Aside from The Mandalorian, and the Star Treks on soon-to-be Paramount+, I’ve recently discovered “Ted Lasso” on AppleTV.
• “Cobra Kai” on Netflix brings The Karate Kid and his circle into manhood as they all try to define manhood in midlife.
• MacGuyver and I enjoy watching The History Channel’s “Forged in Fire.” I always root for a) the female competitors or b) the farriers.
• Pick a veterinarian show. Any veterinarian show. But maybe not while eating. 😉

Please let me know how you’re doing in the comments below.

PS – This post first appeared in my newsletter. If you scroll around on this site, you’ll find the like to sign up.

And please bear with me as I learn this new blogging format, aka The Block Editor. Yikes! The text doesn’t look anything like I’d expected it would.