A while back I mentioned Queer Barney, a groundhog who used to live out back a place I worked long ago and not at all far away. Queer Barney's at my house now. He's been watching me sitting at this computer with some envy and bitterness. He's a bit of a cuss, but after some conversation we've negotiated that every now and again, starting sometime soon, he'll get to do a few entries here.

Here he is warming up:

Before he comes on board, I should tell you a bit about him.

In that time of long ago, at the work place mentioned, some pals and I answered the computing support phones for Indiana University. It was, in many ways, an awesome job: good people, good management, reasonable pay, walking distance from home and Queer Barney but the challenges stopped being challenges and for most of us, boredom set in and we went off to other pastures. I was sorry to leave Queer Barney behind.

Out back the workplace was not unlike a pasture: a large green field, dotted with trees and right out in the open a groundhog hole. As we took our breaks out in the sun to smoke or watch people smoke, or look at but not look at an eclipse we would often see, out there in the field a fat furry groundhog critter.

My friend Jason and I would walk home past the groundhog's lair. We did this so many times that we felt our relationship with our new furry friend demanded a naming. This was round about the time Barney the dinosaur was a hit and we hated Barney. We wanted to take the name back, make it our own, give it positive power where only negative had been. You can figure out the rest.