warm days, freezing nights

As we lurch toward spring, we find that the days warm up, while at night the temperatures dip back below freezing. This weather pattern brings us the delight that we know as maple syrup. It also plays havoc with the roads, something to do with moisture creeping in from melting snow, then seizing up at night and melting the next day. I was reminded of this phenomenon when we drove over to the neighboring, more rural, town today and saw signs that said "Frost Heaves."

I always alternate between wondering whether these signs are a complete factual sentence (noun verb) or a descriptor (adjective noun). Robert says they're the sign of the dyspeptic poet.

But I am reminded that long ago, I went to visit a friend who lives way north in the foothills of New Hampshire, but just south of the mountains. His area is rural enough that he claims to have shot at a mountain lion from his back porch one day. And at this time of year, the dirt road in front of his house becomes a mess (they don't call that interim period between winter and spring "mud season" for nothing). Apparently, one year the road was almost unnavigable. So the neighbors went to the town hall to demand that something be done. (I think they were imagining that the town would bring graders to even things out.) The next thing anyone knew, signs had been posted saying "bumps in road". Very helpful, those public works departments.