February 2, 2007

Well, Phil says there'll be an early spring. I'll believe that when I see it. Here in Western New York, the weather typically defies all rules and odds. Oh, sure, we've had a mild winter thus far (except for the past two weeks) but around here, that just means that winter will last until August or so.

Here's an interesting site with great historical information on the whole groundhog day thing, as well as a chart of "readings" going back to 1900. Interestingly enough, only 15 times in the past 107 years has the groundhog NOT seen his shadow, and predicted an early spring.

In addition to Groundhog Day, today is National Wear Red Day to raise awareness of women's heart and stroke health. There was a woman on the radio this morning (apparently also in Women's Day) who, at the age of 32, had a heart transplant. Apparently she had a virus attach to her heart when she was 28. But, because she was young and female, they didn't believe there was anything wrong with her heart. It took four years before anyone seriously took a look at her heart and, by the time they did, her heart was functioning at only 15%. On the day of the surgery for the transplant, her husband flew up to be with her, via helicopter. The chopper crashed, and her husband died nine days later. Left to raise three kids alone, and recuperate from the heart transplant as well, this is truly an inspirational story.

Only a bit more than 55 hours until the SuperBowl.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this game and, while Indianapolis is a great team, they lack in defense what Chicago excels in. Rex Grossman lacks what Peyton Manning exudes but, like my son's Pop Warner football coach used to tell the boys, "If they can't score, they can't win." I'd like to see Peyton Manning get this ring, but I think the reality is that, even though they are the odds-on favorites, I think they've got a better chance at losing than they do at winning -- unless their defense shows up with a vengeance. Time will tell.

Apparently the state police have found more remains, which we assume are those of my missing uncle. They have also determined that the skull was fractured, although they are unable to determine if it was pre- or post-mortem.