The snow flakes and faint scent of a few chimneys in use could have anyone waking up to mistake this late April day for being the creation of a fall day. Whereas the sounds of lawn mowers, children playing and the occasional sizzling of a grill has been replaced by a howling wind surrounded by utter silence outside. Still, this is Wisconsin and the northern part of the country for that matter and though we'd all prefer April to be as bucolic as we seem to remember in our golden spectacles that take us back to childhood memories, this isn't out of the ordinary.

Problem is, for many sports fans such as myself, the inability to fully and comfortably transition into spring has been exacerbated by the endless list of cancellations of local games, the halting of Sunday golf with the buddies and even just the standard after-dinner walk (as if 30-minutes of walking will burn off a large steak?) being put off. Its times such as these that I don't envy school athletic directors who must find a way to cram rescheduled games in before postseason play, and for the players themselves who want to play but at the same time don't necessarily want their high school athletic season to turn into a full-time job in May.

So I take this time to plead with Mother Nature...give us our spring. We've been beaten, allowed to get back up, only to be beaten again. Please let us go.