Spring is on the way. Really! Despite the chilly weather and occasional snow dump, the second half of March invariably brings on scientific-sounding descriptions of something called the vernal equinox, the day when daytime and nighttime are finally equal. It marks the time when daylight starts lasting longer, nights get shorter, and (eventually) warm weather returns to our fair land.

What is rarely discussed, though, is why. Why should the Earth's axis tilt in such a way to create varying seasons? Why are seasons so predictable, year after year after year? Do other planets have similar cycles? Will our pattern ever change?

A while ago we reported on the discovery of the Higgs particle at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe. On March 14, CNN and other news outlets reported some new information to coincide with both pi day (3.14) and Albert Einstein's birthday.

So what's it all about?

The wild frock of hair. The mischievous grin and sad, puppy dog eyes. And, of course, the famous equation E=mc2. The one scientist almost everyone knows not just by name but even by sight is, of course, Albert Einstein. He’s become a synonym for genius; so smart, so beyond our ordinary ways of thinking, that we don’t have any chance of understanding his ideas.

And yet, that part of the legend is simply not true. You can understand some of Einstein’s most exciting discoveries, and you won’t need an advanced degree in physics to do it. All it takes is a little imagination. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” What better way to celebrate Einstein’s 134th birthday than by recreating in our own minds one of his most astonishing discoveries?

We completed the last leg of our Scioto River journey in August. We drove down to Shawnee State Park the night before in order to get an early start. Our plan was to put in on Scioto Brush Creek, a tributary of the Scioto and a popular waterway for canoeing. David Rutter brought his two sons along, so I shared a canoe with George – not his usual canoe, but the very first one he made 23 years ago. This sweet boat was a joy to ride in and I picked up some valuable lessons on paddling a canoe in the bargain.

We speculated about how much water would be in the creek given the lack of rain throughout the summer. We drove to the town of McDermott to take a look at the creek. Although getting the canoes in the water was challenging due to the steep bank, the creek itself seemed to have enough water to float us. That turned out to be deceptive!