Groundhog Day

As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and snow
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop

This is an old Scottish poem about Candlemas (February 2). And it looks like Puxsatawny Phil saw his shadow this morning, as did Jimmy the Groundhog who lives in Wisconsin. So that means there will be six more weeks of winter....

But there is always six more weeks of winter! I just hope the next six weeks aren't as bad as the last.

This is also the week I begin round 2 of my P90X program. I can't wait to see what Tony Horton has planned for me this evening. Last week I really enjoyed my recovery week, although I don't think that eating a huge pile of lemon chicken and shrimp lo mein while watching BALLS OF FURY counts as recovery. More like the slippery slope back down into couch potato oblivion. So I had a minor lapse; I'm still ready for the next level.

Mainly, I'm impressed within one month of doing this because my pants are not as tight. But what really impressed me is how MUCH STRONGER I am. At first I struggled with one pull up. I can now pop out 4 before it starts to get ugly.

I can now hold myself in a chattaranga pose, which is a yoga pose where you are holding yourself up on only your toes and your hands while you are down in a push up position, hovering 1 inch off the floor. I can now hold myself like this gracefully before I move into upward dog instead of how I used to do it: namely, crashing down to the floor like a water buffalo hit by a tranquilizer dart.

I don't think crashing water buffalo is a yoga pose.

So back to Groundhog Day... the movie version. I love this movie. And not just because Bill Murray's in it. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend investing two hours of your time. Same with the aforementioned Balls of Fury. If you like kung-fu (WHO DOESN'T LIKE KUNG-FU?) you will thoroughly enjoy. It is a classic style kung-fu movie, except they replace all the kung-fu with: PING PONG!

Yeah, I know. Why didn't I think of that?