No more need for a ski mask.

We're supposed to get a snowstorm in Minnesota today. Maybe a foot of snow. With 40-mile-an-hour winds. But still, I have a sense that spring has arrived. Because the Chicago Cubs opened the exhibition baseball season in Arizona yesterday, and won, 5-3. I'm still in Minnesota. But I'll be fleeing to Arizona next week. Maybe for two weeks or so. Where I'll attend Cubs games virtually every day. Before I return to Minnesota. To shovel, I'm sure, more snow. Knowing, though, that it won't last for long. And knowing that the ice probably will leave the lake in the first or second week of April. Yes, the change of seasons will be well underway. Spring. And baseball. And flowers. And no more need for a heavy jacket and thermo boots and a ski mask when I go for a walk. --Jim Broede