If This Is Spring...

Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
on Monday, March 31, 2008
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The sky is a white haze this morning. I went to the window and stared down at the snow-gilt trees, baffled by the capricious weather. This is March 31, the cusp of Spring, but outside it might as well be December 24. I'm not complaining -- I can hole up at my computer with a steady supply of coffee and not feel a bit of guilt for not being outdoors.

So how about some photos?



Over the weekend, Laurie and I took a spur-of-the-moment roadtrip to Yankton, SD. How's this for a motive: we'd only gotten halfway through a Laura Lippman audiobook last weekend, and we wanted to finish it. In other words, the drive was its own reward, but it turned out Yankton (which I'd never visited) was full of interesting sights.

The road there was intriguing, too:



Burned out cars are a staple of country driving around here. I don't know why. Maybe the farmers put them out for scarecrow duty, a warning to motorists not to stop and ask for directions. One thing seems certain: this puppy didn't just catch on fire. The hood and engine look pristine, while the rest of the family wagon is torched.

In Yankton, I was fascinated by the marina, which is still very much on ice -- with a nice, cutting wind coming across the frozen water. The sky above was beautiful.



We crossed a rickety one-lane bridge into Nebraska, then crossed right back and went home. The first snow started tapping on the windshield as we arrived.