Clearly, life in my area has taken some bizarre twists and turns. And frankly, I began to think it was me. I get irritable this time of year, and between my wife and local politics I was harboring a very raw nerve. Like a lot of you, I was hanging on dreaming of warmer weather and the start of bike season.

Then I opened this morning's newspaper...

Usually it's the calm before the storm. My wife is sleeping, the mutts are quiet, the coffee is brewing and I observe all of the sharp knives in my home as simple tools and not "instruments of my will." If anything, I am 'placid,' as odd as that term can apply to me.

However, my local paper was simply a crazy quilt of my state's legislature ranting (all wearing orange T-shirts, to boot), a report that a drunken townie burned down his friend's trailor in an alcohol infused spite, and a breaking news story on how pizza is delivered to the Capitol Building for protestors. As for Madison Wisconsin, the most level-headed individual in the news was Charlie Sheen--he's drinking and chasing women which to some degree actually makes sense.

Madison is often defined as "twenty-five square miles surrounded by reality." But consider this, when a bipolar biker with a mercurial temper and a razor sharp knife is the most stable adult in Dane County, I then advise visitors to only drink bottled water. This place has gone totally insane.