The annual Groundhog Day celebration is in its fifth year.

Potomac Phil may have been a stuffed groundhog, but PETA doesn’t think that the annual Groundhog Day celebration is anything to take lightly.

On the same day that something happened in a small town in Pennsylvania, Potomac Phil emerged from his mid-winter slumber for long enough to tell anxious D.C. residents what they didn’t want to hear — we’ve got six more weeks of winter coming.

And hey, with the maximum high today in some parts of the D.C. region nearing 60 degrees, maybe Punxsutawney Phil is on to something. (We hope so, for his sake.)

If you’ve been feeling that Winter is interminable, your work has become Groundhog Day, and an impulse rendezvous to St. Barts would be perfect right about now, then you may be suffering from March Malaise. And, let’s face it. There are only so many times you can watch Will Ferrell’s cowbell or Sony’s bouncing ball video for a quick lift. True, March is a good month to seek endorphin highs by logging in some pavement…

The end of next week could be pretty bleak. The excitement of early February, from Groundhog Day to the Olympics Opening Ceremonies to Valentine’s Day to Presidents Day, comes to a rushing halt as the long weekend draws to a close. Bereft of any elementary school-style holiday-appropriate window appliques, you may find yourselves plodding along, just trying to muddle through. But we here at DCist, well, we saw this coming. We knew you needed one…