For the record, people of Genesee County please know that at least one couple residing here takes issue with the 2021 foretoken of the season's weather revealed Tuesday.
That would be Stafford denizens Walt and Kathleen Kershenski.
"My Wife and I are going to dispute Punxsutawney Phil’s Prognostication regarding six more weeks of Winter," Walt declared in an email to The Batavian.
They have evidence, they claim, that puts the lie to the outlook of a world-famous woodchuck in the state below ours.
As everyone knows, on Feb. 2 furry Phil is awoken early by members of his "inner circle," all dressed to the nines, at Gobbler's Knob, borough of Punxatawney, Jefferson County, Pa. The rodent, a member of the family Sciuridae (belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots), manifests itself outside his earthen den to see if he can see his own shadow.
If the little seer does, as was the case the day before yesterday, lore has it that the end of this drear is not near.
In fact, there's suppose be a winter storm tomorrow and Saturday, dumping up to nine inches of lake effect snow, with wind gusts up to 45 mph, prompting the staunchly prescient Kershenskis to, hypothetically, yodel in unison "Pshaw!"
"To our surprise, on Groundhog Day this week we saw a flock of birds land in our crabapple tree next to our bird feeders," says Walt. "It was a flock of at least 20 to 25 robins. They stayed for a while and feasted on the crabapples and then left. Unfortunately I did not have my camera nearby, so I could not get a picture."
But we can imagine it nonetheless.
And know that monotonous chill will give way to green and warmth, that forsythia will suddenly sprout -- yellow as Harvey Ross Ball's original Smiley Face, and we'll be the happier for it.
"We just wanted to boost people's spirits," Walt says, adding hopefully "and maybe there will be an early spring after all?"
