The circus is in town! So, for once, that smell is coming from the elephants and not my on-the-air performance. Thursday morning, I will be doing the weather from the Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus. It is always a dangerous assignment for me. The last couple of times I did it, they kept trying to herd me into the hyena cage. When I explained that I do the weather, they handed me a shovel and pointed me to the business end of a zebra, assuming I would feel right at home.

Frankly, I do feel right at home around the circus. As a kid, we used to go to movies in Baraboo Wisconsin at the Al Ringling Theatre. One of my best friends worked at the Circus World Museum there for many summers. I even interviewed a Wallenda, once! We used to have old-fashioned tent circuses visit the area. I've told this story before but it's worth recounting. Once a small circus set up their big top on the field next to the grade school. This was before we had any "Parks and Rec" so the kickball and baseball diamonds were created by running over the same path a million times with stones, branches, caps and school books used for bases. Well, back at the circus, one of the elephants got a little frisky and went out looking for fun. The tourist with a trunk broke free from the stake in the ground and rambled around town. More than one resident took a vow of sobriety that afternoon. Eventually, Jumbo found the nursing home, Maplewood, and decided to visit...crashing through one of the doors. Even for some of our town's older folks, this was a new one. One guy in his 90s, from a different wing of Maplewood, who had not actually viewed the elephant, put in an immediate request for a change in his medication...figuring he was missing out on something. To this day, there is a sign posted in the invaded hallway that says "Pachyderm Crossing!"

Whenever we see the news footage of the elephants coming to town in advance of the big show...like we used this morning on FirstNews... it unleashes a loud, spittle-icious contest of elephant trumpeting around our dinner table. I think I may still win the award for loudest, most obnoxious sound but actually making the noise has started to give me major headaches, a craving for peanuts and the inability to respond coherently to anyone for up to three days, unless they call me Babar.

Well, we may not see elephants tomorrow morning on FirstNews but it is sure to be an adventure. I just know I'm going to end up with a shovel full of meadow muffins. Again, not that different than any other morning.