Groundhog Day

Even IF a groundhog seeing his shadow can
somehow foretell the end of winter, I still have major problems
with the concept.
Punxatawny Phil has a high accuracy rate, and that's fine for
everyone in all the states of that particular geographic and
climatic zone, but Texas is so big it has five
distinct zones all it's own, and none of them even remotely
resemble Pennsylvania.
So today I decided to take the bull by the horns and do my own
predicting, using the local critters.
First I tried to find one of our local deer herds, figuring that
if one mammal can do it, so can another.
But the deer were nowhere to be found. Probably didn't want the
responsibility. Or perhaps they were hiding in the shade, since it
was over 80 degrees this afternoon.
Next I went to see if the semi-wild peacocks had an opinion.
But I was a minute too late and they crossed the street in front
of me, putting themselves between me and the sun which resulted in
this crappy photo.
There's a shadow, but the peahen never looked at it, and
even if she tried the sun in her eyes was blinding so results are still
inconclusive.
Arriving home disappointed, I noticed this juvenile
Anolis Carolinensis on my house.
Well, if the mammals and birds won't cooperate with my
plan, maybe the reptiles will?
So I approached stealthily, and eventually got my lens within inches
of the lizard without alarming it. So far, so good.
Did it see it's shadow?
Actually, it too was hiding from the blazing sun, because
as I mentioned it was in the mid 80s today.
So who around here really cares when winter is going to end?
Today, man and beast were behaving the same way they do
in early June.
In San Antonio winter is a vague concept whose existance has never
been proven, anyway.