Actress in a commercial for, of all things, online funerals...

"Sometimes you can't go to the funeral that you want."

The wife, folding laundry:

"Like when the person just refuses to die."

And on an evening when semis travel the interstate at 25 mph, with emergency lights flashing, I drive into town.

And spend three hours in a class of a dozen and a half people listening to a guest lecturer on, of all things, lichen and elk.

Talk about timing. And even though there as part of the audience, I end up doing more than my share of the talking, and answering questions.

And oddly, no one asks what I consider the most obvious question of all...

Will it happen again this year?

Four inches of snow on the ground, and still falling. We're worried. The warden is headed out there again tomorrow.

She asked if I wanted another snowmachine ride.

I declined.

Unless I'm needed.