Spring!

I love this time of year. After a long and cold winter, Spring is finally beginning to return to the north country. The cardinals are showing up in pairs, the dark-eyed juncos are swarming the feeders to fuel up for their migration into Canada, the black-capped chickadees in the treetops are singing like drunken sailors, and the pickup trucks are turning into submarines.

PERHAM, Minn.—The Department of Natural Resources is reminding people to be careful when driving on ice after a pickup truck plunged through a lake near Perham.

Authorities say four men were able to escape injury when their truck fell through Little Pine Lake early Friday. They were going fishing.

Otter Tail County Sheriff's Lieutenant Mike Boen says the ice was only 3 to 4 inches where the truck fell.

DNR Conservation officer Chris Vinton says the men got out while the pickup was sinking and made it to thick ice. Vinton says he doesn't think they even got wet.

The truck, on the other hand, remains at the bottom of Little Pine Lake in more than 50 feet of water.

It's the same story every year. Every Fall, some dolt gets his name in the papers by being the first one to ride his snowmobile down to Davey Jones' locker, and every Spring, someone else is astonished to discover that thinning lake ice won't support the weight of a pickup truck. Minnesota: The Slow-Learner State...

How about you? What's your favorite, er, "non-traditional" sign of the changing seasons?