I was on my way to work today and was watching the world around me celebrate the first really nice day in a long time. Cattle were basking in the fields on either side of the road. Everyone seemed to be happy. Then I saw a yak. Yes, a yak in all his long-coated glory. This fellow looked absolutely glum. His head was down and he looked like he was wondering (like I was) how a fine Arctic guy like him ended up in the American mid-west on a very warm spring day.

On my way home it was dark. Suddenly I noticed that I was driving towards mountains. Not mountains like the Rocky Mountains but like a good sized Appalachian peak. The only problem was that unless the geography of the state had been shaken up while I was working no mountain should be ahead of me. This caused a profound feeling of disorientation. Was I lost? Did I get abducted by aliens and put back in the wrong place? I honestly had no clue. The landscape around me looked totally foreign and I couldn’t get my bearings. From road signs I knew I was on the right road but that was the only way I knew. It was actually a pretty cool feeling. Certainly spiced up the drive home. I finally figured out when I looked out the left window that the mountains ahead of me were a huge cloud formation. The base was dark grey clouds blending into the ground and the peak was where the cloud met the lighter grey sky. But it still looked like a mountain so I could keep my feeling of adventure intact.