Next weekend, the 33rd State of Maine Sportsman’s Show runs from Friday through Sunday at the Augusta Civic Center, a show that has always aimed to offer family fun for all ages — but particularly for children.

PORTLAND — The guy playing the acoustic guitar early in the evening was a fisherman. And the artist singing those original Pete Kilpatrick songs later in the night was as well.

Last week, when the weather warmed and an hour slipped through our sleep like sand through an hour glass — too quickly, so softly, it seemed a tenderness unfolding — I turned once again to the happily irrational acts of welcoming spring early.