There's got to be a morning after ...

(The title, for those of you who are not pop culture freaks, is from the Academy Award-winning song for the original Poseidon Adventure. Extra points if you know -- no Googling, now! -- who sang it.)

Well, we seem to have survived the Great Blizzard of 2011 (this one, anyway). The Dells got maybe 15 inches of total snow, spread out over 2+ days. The library is open today, but the bookmobile is not going out. So I have the day off to try to catch up on bookkeeping of another sort, balancing checkbooks and so on. South of here it was worse but the drifts are significant even here.

The bad news is that it may actually clear up enough for the groundhog to see its shadow, depending on when it pokes its head out. If early (as is the "official" viewing), no shadow and so a shorter winter. But if you have lazy groundhogs peering out this afternoon, that may signal the proverbial six more weeks of winter.

I realize it doesn't matter. But winter started early for us this year (December of last year, actually) with heavy snow and some days when the actual temps hit -20 (-29 C). So we are hoping that it will end early, too.

Easter, though, will be quite late this year -- April 24. That is not a promising sign! (The latest possible date -- by Western church tradition -- is April 25.)

Speaking of Western church tradition, today (February 2) is also the Feast of the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple, also known as the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary. It commemorates the events reported in Luke 2:22-40. (The author of Luke's gospel, BTW, seems to have confused or combined two separate Old Testament traditions: the ritual purification of the mother after childbirth -- Leviticus 12 -- and the ritual redemption of the firstborn son -- Exodus 13. Thus we wind up with overlapping themes.) And for what it is worth, today is also known as Candlemas because Mass includes a procession and the blessing of candles to be used in services in the coming year. In a sense this is the end of the Christmas cycle of feasts.

PS -- Answer to pop culture quiz: The song is performed in the film by the character of Nonnie, played by Carol Lynley, but is actually sung by a vocal double, Renee Armand. It appears twice, during a warm-up rehearsal and then later during the New Year's Eve party early in the film. The lyrics relate to the themes of the film, as a band of passengers survive the capsizing of the ship SS Poseidon and have to escape the sinking wreck.