Brewers vs. Nationals in Washington D.C.

This whole time I have been assuming that you know the story of the groundhog and that you have seen the movie Groundhog's Day. If you don't know that or haven't seen the movie, go to Wikipedia and Amazon to learn and to buy. The city of Punxsutawney does have a town square like the one in the movie, but Gobler's Knob is located off in the woods in another part of town. But Phil the Groundhog does live in the town square in the Groundhog Zoo with his wife Phyllis, where he spends the other 364 days sleeping, eating and pooping in captivity for all to see.

So this is what Phil's life is like. He hangs out in the town square in a fake habitat for 364 days a year where people can gawk at him and take pictures. Then on February 2nd, they drag him out of his shitty home, lock him in a tree trunk, then pull him out and show him off to a crowd of thousands. Then they put words in his mouth and tell people that he either did or did not see his shadow, then stuff him back in the glass case for the next 364 days. If that's not hell, then someone please tell me what is. I wonder what heinous acts Phil did in a past life to deserve this.

I haven't spent a lot of time around groundhogs in my life. I blame being born and raised in the city for that. Groundhogs don't look like a lot of fun. In fact, they look like a big angry rodent that wants to bite your face off if you come too close. Even though Phil is legendary and I'd love to give him a hug, I'm glad that there was glass in between us so that I wouldn't be tempted to do so. No one wants to get face-bit by a groundhog.

The Groundhog Zoo is part of a building that also housed the Police Station, City Hall and the Public Library. In a town this small (with a population just over 6,000) it is common for all those government agencies to be housed in the same building. So you are able to get a good side view of the Groundhog Zoo from inside the library, which is just what Kevin and I were doing when we snapped these pictures with Phil.