DSC_0495_crop, originally uploaded by jason.bennion.

Ah, Utah… a land of eccentricity no matter which way you look… in the people, certainly; in the landscape, unquestionably; but perhaps no place more than in the weather.

Last week, people were walking around in light jackets, and even shirtsleeves during the warmest part of the day. Then came a couple days of unnervingly strong and temperate winds, followed by torrential rains on Saturday night and then, with a temperature drop so abrupt it almost makes The Day After Tomorrow seem plausible — well, okay, not really; nothing could actually do that — the first big snowstorm of the year. I woke up yesterday morning to nine inches of the white stuff on my deck. There were good-sized tree branches down all over the valley, shattered by the weight of sodden snow caught in unshed autumnal leaves. The Girlfriend had an entire tree come down just outside her apartment, narrowly missing her bedroom window.

The state’s official slogan is “Life Elevated” — no, I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean either — but I think it really ought to be “Like Drama?”