Groundhog Day

Random musings of a farmgirl. They call February 2nd Groundhog Day but in these parts those critters have always been known as woodchucks....on our farm they were plentiful and my black lab, aptly named, Blackie, made it his career to root out every woodchuck he could find......his paws always covered with dirt from the constant digging and funniest of all, his nose was always covered with dirt from trying to force his nose down the deep holes made by his furry quests. Blackie also loved to come in the house and plunk himself in the bed to leave a nice muddy mess. His other favorite pursuit was chasing cats in the house. I have vivid memories of him curled up sleeping under the coffee table, only to leap up suddenly to chase a passing cat, sending the table, and all on it, flying.
Anyway, this was really about woodchucks.... Yesterday Punxatawny Phil made his yearly appearance to announce whether or not winter would go on for 6 more weeks.....he says it will this year. Meanwhile, up here in Massachusetts we have our very own groundhog or woodchuck and TA DA, her name is Ms. G!!! Really, it is.....she lives north of Boston and from footage on the news yesterday, she lives high off the "hog." She emerged yesterday and announced that winter is over.....cannot prove that by me today as we are having snow all day!
My Ms. G does not seem to be phased by the fact that a famous woodchuck shares her name, and she has been continuing her winter behavior of nesting in my bed all day. Last night as the barometer began to drop with the aproaching storm, she did spend several hours running around and playing "fetch" with me, and this morning, all the bathroom rugs were askew.
Frisky = SPRING to me and I am ready!!

All these inanities are a diversion from the fact that Bob remains in the hospital this morning. After a night of receiving fluids and anti-biotics, he was more lucid yesterday and there were meetings with Dr's, oncologists, attorneys, and some distant relatives. LM is at full tilt and doing admirably well. He even managed to teach, as scheduled, last night, while I sat with Bob so he wouldn't have to worry. Bob has an aggressive small cell cancer which has spread from his bladder throughout his digestive system. Yesterday afternoon it was decided to do 3 days of heavy chemo. There is a slim chance that it will buy him some time....weeks to months. This gives us more chance to get things in order and, of course, some more time with him. We doubt he could come home again. There are a lot of issues to grapple with here but we are facing them one at a time. After working all day yesterday, then going to the hospital for several hours, I was exhausted and just collapsed in to bed at 9:30.....LM called me after he saw Bob at 10 and hearing my incoherency, he just told me to put down the phone and go back to sleep, remembering how much he loves me...sweet man! There is so much to consider with the fact that LM is now power of atty, decision maker, etc. for Bob. We most of all want Bob to be with us, but reality says it won't happen. It's a restless feeling that makes me want to dig myself a "woodchuck hole" and climb down in to the warm earth for a long nap. Cannot do that and must be "present" to help LM and Bob through this process. For now, Bob is receiving excellent care, he even ate a piece of the apple pie which I had made for him Sunday!!