SKI QUEBEC

BON JOUR...
Dear Mates, your intrepid friend is in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I promised at the beginning of these posts that I would keep you abreast of my adventures and travels. These have been geographical, intellectual, and spiritual and make for interesting reading as I have reviewed them.

So I drove up from Painted Post NY yesterday and today is Friday 19th of February. Quite a boring drive as the entire country side is covered with snow. Tomorrow, I drive on to Mont-Tremblant where I will rendezvous with eleven strangers. We are meeting courtesy of Sierra Club's trip program and the two leaders are Ed and Cathy who live south of me in Orangeville PA. We will ski hut-to-hut for six days in the Canadian wilderness. I will let you know all about it on my return.

This may be quite the adventure for me as I am on the verge perhaps of some repair work on my knees. The longest ski will be 13 miles and this may be somewhat of a test for me. We shall see.

I hope to do some museum visits around the town today. There is lots to see here but I expect to take in the arts museum, the science museum, and perhaps also the IMax.

I recommend staying at Youth Hostels. Parking is a little tricky here in Montreal but the hostel is near to the center of things. I have met two of my room mates, one from Australia and the other from Egypt. Quebec Province is the beginning of French Canada and, crossing from Ontario, even the MacDonald's is different. Of course, the food and the space are the same, but the language is French.

The hostel staff are all friendly and helpful and the amenities are very clean and well maintained. As well as kitchen amenities, the hostel has a bar/small bistro. Last night, after getting somewhat lost for a while, looking for the parking place recommended by the hostel, it was good to settle in with a large beer. Luckily, I have been here once before and, as the city is laid out on a grid for the most part, having strayed back onto a freeway and seemingly having to drive alone forever before being able to exit, I was very pleased indeed to find myself eventually at the intersection of the very street on which was the parking garage! Best of all, the bed (albeit the top bunk) was firm and comfortable while my companions hardly snored at all.

Today the weather is overcast with light snow flurries. There is quite a deal of snow underfoot but I have my trusty snow boots so all should be well.

Au revoir...I will write again in a week or so, unless I get the urge this evening.

A good weekend for you all.

GROUNDHOG DAY

ONCE MORE, here in the United States, especially eastern USA, we have a special focus on February 2nd...Groundhog Day. Since the winter solstice (usually around December 21), the shortest day of the year, or mid-winter, the day-light hours have been extending. Paradoxically, the days have been getting colder. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we begin to wonder how much longer the winter days will persist. We long for Spring and look for signs of Winter's ending.

About this time, the groundhog or woodchuck stirs from hibernation and pokes its nose from out of its hole and has a look about. According to the legend, if the sky is clear, it will see its shadow and there will be left only six weeks of winter. If it is cloudy, the wintry conditions are likely to persist much longer and the little chaps will return to hibernation

Americans, neither Native Americans nor the more recent inhabitants, did not invent the Groundhog Day myth. This goes back to Roman times and continued into more modern times in Germany. The first weeks of February have ever been linked to weather forecasting. Good weather with clear skies has been believed to predict an early Spring. In Europe, this is about the time that the hedgehogs make their appearance from hibernation. German immigrants brought with them the myth but not the hedgehogs. The animal they found most resembling the hedgehog and which hibernated was the groundhog. Lots of German folk immigrated into Pennsylvania and it is the little town of Punxsutawney makes much of this day and has an apparently everlasting groundhog called Punxsutawney Phil who lives in a hole adjacent to the local library and who is the focus of the annual celebrations on the previous evening. Quite a few states have similar weather predicting heroes; for instance, in Alaska, they have Marmot Day (groundhogs are a form of marmot).

Groundhog Day became well-know through the film of that name. The storyline is about a TV feature crew that go to Punxsutawney to document the festival. The lead is a particularly obnoxious fellow who finds himself condemned to wake up in seemingly endless Groundhog Days, each of which reveals some aspect of his appalling personality. Through this arduous journey, he eventually discovers a better self and is released from his pilgrimage. 'Hooray', we all say at the end. I love the movie and have seen it as many times as there are Groundhog Days in the film.

I first heard of Groundhog Day while living in Australia and exchanging tapes with Sandy, later to be my wife. One recording was of a bunch of her friends in a bar, listening to a joke told by Emily, one of the group. The punch line involved a reference to Groundhog Day; so funny as to be drowned out by the loud laughter of the appreciative listeners. It took me weeks to discover what the punchline was and then, living in a country that had no groundhogs and where February 2nd occurred during the hottest weather, found I could not 'get' how it might be funny.

From time to time, we might wish that someone of our acquaintance could have such an experience...one that removes them from us until they return, suitably mended in their ways; or even wish such a redemptive experience for ourselves.

Of late, I have found myself wishing this for certain politicians!