It Came

I am excited to announce the arrival of Spring!

This I know is so, not because of the calendar, but because of the walkers, runners, and bikers. You see, in Minneapolis there are two types of people: people who are crazy about exercise and people who think those people are crazy.

The strict dichotomy, I’m fairly sure, is due to 5 months of winter. Days upon days, weeks upon weeks of indoor living leaves a mark on body and soul; so either you spend your winter incarceration casting about for ways to move your body and pining after grass or you succumb and learn to sit. (An Uncharacteristically Vicious Aside—not for Mpls friends to read: There are some here in the Midwest that will tell you that you can enjoy, nay LOVE, winter. All you have to do is find a way to get out in it, a winter pastime or hobby. For these chipper winter lovers I long to take away their indoor garages, make them live on a PhD student salary, give them four children under the age of ten, and then knock them up. Let's sit back and watch them embrace snow and ice THEN! HA!--Okay, spiteful and pointless aside over, I apologize.) So, by the time the snow dissolves and all you have left on the sidewalk is salt and sand, the crazies come out in masses.

People are everywhere. They forget they have cars. Minneapolitans walk, run, ride, and skip to destinations closer than 10 miles. Even I, Mrs. Moderation (A Typically Useless Aside: That isn't quite true because I actually married Mr. Fiscally Conservative Tightwad with Leftist Leanings.), have caught the bug. Without really intending to, last Wednesday I canceled my appointment at the gym and went on a 2 hour run instead. Two hours!

But the sun was so pretty. And the flowers were blooming--or budding anyway. And I was outside. Outside. I just love writing that word: outside. Without a coat even. Besides after the first hour, my stride was not so much of a run but more of a bouncy trudge. Like my fellow crazies, I just got carried away. I was reconnecting with sidewalks, sun, grass and my indefinably industrial, artistic, river view, funky south side neighborhood. It seemed more important to see the world than to return home/inside.

In fact, my part of the world was so entertaining that I went back to get a few pictures...

I was keen on this gorgeous tree. Ironically, it reminds me of snow.

I loved this sign discreetly hung on this fence.

You read it right.

Proudly declaring "House of Cheese."

And this strange object...

What?

I mean, WHAT the?!

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the Bunny Peeps on a Stick planted near the river. I could only imagine what they were doing there. But every scenario I pictured was wholly satisfactory.

And of course this little girl accompanied me on my excursion.

While, I said it was sunny, it was not warm. She wore a coat and snow pants.

She loved it as much as I did.

Go SPRING! (outside, outside, outside...)