I literally grew up less than an hour away from Punxsutawney, Pa., home of the annual Groundhog Day festival. Yet, I never attended the session where people wake up at 5 a.m. on a blistery February morning to shine a line in a rodent's face to see if he sees a shadow.

I had actually come to loathe the whole process not because it really made no sense, but it seemed like every single time, the groundhog would predict six more weeks of winter, which just seemed like an eternity when there was nothing but snow, snow, snow.

Watching trees on mountains surrounding you go bare, and having to slosh through snowfall after snowfall is exactly why I live in much more tropical climates now. I just couldn't wait for spring to come, so that I could hop on my bicycle and actually start to wear shorts again.

Now that my winters are pretty much like my summers, except a bit cooler, I don't have to suffer through a season like that anymore, and I could care less what Punxsutawney Phil has to say. But I had to admit ... summers just feel like an eternity.

Of course, the rerun season is nothing like it was in the past. At least with the advent of original programming on cable, we are seeing far more new episodes of shows pop up, like "Merlin" on NBC and both "Warehouse 13" and "Eureka" on Syfy. But I still want my network programming to come back, and dammit, I want it now.

Patience is not my strong suit, unless I am waiting two years for a new episode of "The Sopranos." But I really, really try, and I'm thankful that the 1990s are gone. I still remember being shocked that Capt. Picard was turned into Locutus, and without even blinking, Cmdr. Riker ordered the Enterprise to fire on the Borg ship. Before we could find out what happened, the screen faded to black, and we were told we would have to wait all friggin' summer to find out how all of it resolved.

You don't really see cliffhangers like that anymore, although you have to admit, the World Trade Center ending to the first season of "Fringe" on Fox was certainly a doozy. So it's easier to be patient. But not too much easier.

And it will be nice ... I want to praise some shows and complain about others. It's hard to do that if there really is nothing on right now.

But I guess I can get caught up on "Warehouse 13" or something. Or maybe I should try reading a book. Or go outside ...