Ozarks RFD:

Before this latest freeze, I thought I felt a touch of spring in the air. The frogs around my pond did, too, and crawled out of the mud to take a look. Woodcocks stopped by to see what was going on. Tulips and jonquils poked their green noses through winter’s mat of dead leaves and grass to check it out, as well. As if those signs weren’t enough, the politicians also started coming out of hibernation. I saw at least a half-dozen of them wandering around town, shaking off the dust of a couple of off-years and getting loosened up for a run.