Spring is in the air here at the base of the Black Hills. I wish I could say the same for you folks at the base of the foothills up yonder north of north where winter wore out its welcome months ago. At last report spring was set to roll into Lignite just in time for summer. That’s just as well, because any more than a month of summer has been known to cause fair skinned Norwegian’s to spontaneously combust. Poof…nothing left but the scent of lutefisk and smoldering all access passes to the Hostefest…Uff Da. So it goes.

I ate lutefisk on purpose once and have no intentions of doing it again. My grandpa said it was “poor man’s lobster” and seeing how I liked lobster and was poor I decided to give it a go. No amount of butter could stifle the gaging. That was over 25 years ago and my mouth still gets watery just thinking about it. Not the good watery produced when wanting to put food into your mouth but the bad watery that occurs when your stomach is greasing the hinges for a quick exit…Uff da.

I’m sure you northerners are happy to know that a mere 400 miles south of the 97 foot snow bank covering your patio furniture are people gallivanting around in crocs and culottes. Kind of makes you cranky I bet. Cranky enough to make you want to slug the penguins that have moved into your garage until the weather warms up a bit. I wonder if anyone’s ever slugged a penguin? There’s no way their stubby little flippers could block a right hook to the beak. “Dear PETA…I am kidding. I would never slug a penguin while I’m out seal clubbing.”

Let us pause for hate mail to be typed and spell checked. Okay…back to spring. Did I mention that my neighbor mowed his lawn the other day? Baseball practice is in full swing, I got a little sunburnt at a track meet last week, and my wife’s tulips are on the rise. If it makes you feel better the grass is brown and we are most likely headed into a drought so it’s not all sunshine and puppies in our neck of the woods. As is usually the case, good and bad generally frolic about hand in hand.

“It is what it is” might be the refrain you’ll here to such situations or any situation for that matter. I refrain from that refrain almost as stringently as I refrain from cladding my hooves in crocs. Nothing personal it’s just that the saying is senseless and crocs make my feet sweat and clash with my culottes. It’s not the only senseless saying; most sayings are senseless and simply serve as a way for us to keep a conversation going without actually having to say anything that contributes to the conversation.

Well I hope you all learned something today. Not from me but from someone more qualified to learn you good. For my family and friends to the north I am quite sure that nobody in the country appreciates summer as much as you. Both weeks of it…Uff da.