It's March...

...and the windchill is 9 degrees!

When I lived in Texas, March meant that spring was on its way in. Tulips would break the surface, the days would get warmer, and we might even get a thunderstorm or two. In Wisconsin, March is a four-letter word. I know, it has five letters, but work with me here. I'm living in Wisconsin for crying out loud. Snow, ice, bitter winds. The days are getting longer and sun is getting stronger, but spring feels pretty far away.

I read recently in a Lonely Planet guide book to Iceland that in the arctic and near-arctic, the air is so clear and pure that distant features do not appear out of focus. Distance is thus almost indeterminable and the world around you takes on a 2-dimensional quality. I guess this could get pretty dangerous if a cliff (or polar bear) looks to be farther away than it really is.

I figure something like that happens in Wisconsin in the winter. The air is so cold that you lose your bearings. "When is spring? I remember March used to be spring...but it's so cold..." November to April kind of compresses and you lose track until you stumble into spring at some point. "How long was winter this year? I think it was pretty much the whole year..." You know what they say about Wisconsin - it has three seasons: About to be winter, winter, and just was winter.

We'll get to spring sooner or later, I suppose.