This Time of Year

“Well, there’s a feeling in the air
Just like a Friday afternoon.
Yeah, you can go there if you want
Though it fades too soon”
- “This Time of Year”, Better Than Ezra

I’m not a fan of early January.  I don’t think that I have ever been.

It’s not that I dislike the Winter, cause I do…  I love the Winter.  The colder the better, and it’s even better if there is snow on the ground!!

It’s not that I dislike the sporting aspect, cause I do…  Football is winding down, culminating in a BCS Champion and a Super Bowl Champion.  Hockey is starting to wind towards the All-Star Break, the midway point of their season.

It’s not that I dislike the Holidays, cause I do…  Christmas is by far my favorite day of the year.  Nothing compares to being able to give someone some item that they desire.  I feel warm just thinking about handing a present to a loved one.  The expression on their face as they open it.  There is nothing like sitting down to a small family meal with my folks and my aunt, eating ham, sweet potato casserole, Podnuh’s baked beans, and forty-two types of desserts.

I dislike endings, especially endings that do not live up to their expectations.  How many of us have been disappointed at the end of a TV show or a movie that either ends abruptly (see the Blair Witch Project)?  I know that I have been.  I enjoy closure.  I enjoyed closure much more earlier in my life, but years and hardships on my soul have made closure unnecessary… at times.  This season really does seem to have that ambivalence to having that tight, wrapped ending which I desire.

The “Holiday Season”, which could be defined as Halloween on October 31 to New Years Day, just ends…  like that ring road around the abandoned mall in Elgin, Illinois.  There is no warning.  There is no sign whatsoever to tell you that the season is drawing to a close.  No, it just ends, and sometimes, it ends just too abruptly.  It does not lend itself to end in one neat little package with all the answers and warm, fuzzy feelings.  This year seems to be one of those years.

It seems like it was just yesterday that the tree was coming out and ready to be trimmed.  It seems like yesterday there were Christmas lights everywhere to behold.  It seems like yesterday there was a crush, though muted due to the economy, at stores to find the perfect gift.  It seems like yesterday that we hopped into a car to face traffic on the way to our family and friends.  It seems like yesterday that churches were putting on their Christmas shows, cantatas, and birth of Christ-centric activities.

I’m not sure what it is…  it seems like December 26 to January 1, it’s time to pack away all the festive cheer for next year.  Trees are put up or placed on the curb.  Lights are darkened or removed.  Churches put up their nativity scenes.  We start to travel back to our points of origin with our destinations fading into the rear view mirror, possibly for another year for some.

For this reason, I’ve started a tradition a couple of years ago in my household.  Instead of defrocking my home on the first instance possible, which I have done in previous years, I keep signs of Christmas and the Holidays up for a couple of extra days.  Granted, my tree comes down on January 6 (Epiphany), though I do not celebrate the day, nor have it off.  To me, it’s a reminder that the season is not secular.  It is a reminder that Christmas is more than a one day holiday.  It is a reminder that Christmas is a life long celebration.  It takes me back to Christmas day when I look at the tree, see the lights, look at the ornaments.  It is an opportunity to grasp onto my favorite season for just a bit longer, while the world seemingly races to the next season and the next and the next…

I’m in no way perfect.  I do this little tradition not to make myself better than the person whose tree lays on the side of the road on December 26.  I do it to keep that special feeling in my heart and soul about this Holiday Season that seems to go by quicker and quicker each year that passes.

The Better than Ezra quote that I opened this post with is sadly so very true this time of year…  “Yeah, you can go there if you want, through it fades too soon”.

Return “Home”

It is always nice to explore new routes, especially after a nice and long visit home with family.

After more than a week at home for the Christmas and New Years Holiday, it was time to return back home to Mississippi.  It’s been 4 years now that I have lived in the Jackson metro area, so it has become mundane to take the quick way home.  The quick way home, of course, would be to keep on the Interstate, which at times, is just what the doctor ordered.  I should have listened to my inner monologue today to take the quick way home, but I decided that I would be slightly adventurous.

Baton Rouge to Jackson - Approx. 261 miles

I had wanted to take this route back at Thanksgiving, when I was able to take a quick jaunt home, but this time I actually listened to my inner monologue and took the quick way back to Jackson.

I had traveled various parts of this route in the past.  It had been about 15 years since I had been in the New Roads area, which is a nice little town situated on False River, one of the myriad of oxbow lakes along the Mississippi River.  Heading north from New Roads, you enter into the area of the Mississippi, Red and Atchafalaya Rivers are nearly one river.  Years ago, the Mississippi River started to want to drain down the Atchafalaya River Basin, which would have crippled the ports and the industries of downstream towns such as Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  So, the US Army Corps of Engineers stepped in and constructed the Old River Control Structure (Powerpoint Presentation).

Headed north out of Old River was virgin territory for me.  I continued on Louisiana Highway 15 until just south of Vidalia, where I picked up LA 131 to the foot of the US 425/US 84 bridge across the Mississippi River to Natchez.  Most of the route of LA 15 is along the Mississippi River levee, which is always an interesting ride.  Mississippi has a short route along the Mississippi River levee in Warren and Issaquena Counties, which is also an open range, so you are as likely to meet a cow as you are another vehicle.   LA 15 is not an open range like its Mississippi counterpart, but it does give some good vistas of farming country, as well as decent shots of the Mississippi River.  It is fairly desolate, so it might not be the route to take if you looking for an interesting short cut or are running low on fuel, but cell service was excellent.

After leaving Natchez, I continued east towards Brookhaven on the divided 4-lane of US 84/98.  I had traveled part of this route in the past, but once beyond the community of Bude, where US 98 breaks off towards McComb, MS, and then on towards Brookhaven, MS, it was all new again, until reaching I-55 heading back North into Jackson.  There are some nice rolling hills in this area, as you drive away from the river, and it is 65 miles per hour (mph), which is a definite plus, compared to the rural 2-lanes or the plodding 50 mph pace of the Natchez Trace Parkway.  Do not get me wrong…  I do enjoy the Natchez Trace.  It is a beautiful drive from Natchez to just south of Nashville, Tennessee, but 50 mph can be a drag, when you are ready to get home.

And, now, I am home.  The car is empty of the goodies brought north, and, now, it is time to take another long Winter’s nap.

Relaunch Attempted

Each time that I start one of these blogs, on Blogspot, Xanga, and now, WordPress, I have this lofty goal of keeping up with it.  I have to be honest, I don’t do very well.  I have good intentions, I guess, but in the end, something always seems to get in the way…  work, social commitments, apathy, etc.  Time management is something that I personally need to work on, I guess.  I have always said that busy is an excuse for people that can not manage their time.  The definition falls quite close to home.

I don’t like making New Years Resolutions.  They are pointless, really.  January 1 is no different than, say, June 24.  Each of these days are on their own page of the calendar, but honestly, the days are similar.  The sun rises in the eastern sky, sets in the western sky.  Granted, there is a higher probability that you will wake up with a headache the morning of January 1.  No headache here this morning, which is nice, but today feels no different that any other day of the past couple of weeks, minus Christmas Day.

So much is put on this day as a new beginning, but should it be that way?  The world has the opportunity to restart every morning.

Maybe this is the year that we will see that new political beginning.  The ugliness of the political campaign of the last 2 years is mostly over, except for the people are still hell bent on smearing Sarah Palin if given the opportunity.  By the way that some react, you would think that the words Sarah Palin elicits some sort of spasmodic spinal reaction.  The politics of divisiveness has not worked in the last 16 years, and it would be nice to see a change.

Maybe this is the year that we see a 16-team tournament to determine the National Champion in College Football.  One can grow weary of sports commentators postulating that if Team A beats Team B by enough points that they are automatically better than Team C or D.  Even watching the Rose Bowl this evening seemed like more of a 3-plus hour political commercial for USC being the AP National Champion.  The BCS system does not work, and it would be nice to see a change.

There is no difference in life, either.  We all have the opportunity to hit the restart button each morning.  I’m not so interested in hitting restart in some arenas of life, but I would like to see some possible debugging.  Hopefully this can be an outlet for that debugging process.  It would be nice to achieve some kind of clarity, as there are some facets in life that need clarity.  It will most probably start with a reduction in clutter, which by attempting to create here, am I really producing less clutter in my life?  My answer tonight is yes, but only time will tell if that answer is correct.

Who knows what this will become over time?  I have had this desire to create for the last couple years, and I hope that this is the attempt that finally becomes that something that I create or leads me in the direction where I will create.  I know that it all comes down to me and my effort.

There really is no place like home

I took off early from work this afternoon to make the almost 200 mile trek back to what I consider my home in Louisiana. It’s always nice to hone my combat driving skills once I cross into Louisiana, but that really is another topic for another time. This is about home.

It’s hard to believe that I will lay my head down tonight in the same room that I called home for 8 years, but that it has been almost a decade since I left home. In fact, it will be 10 years at Christmas time. There are days that it seems like yesterday. If I were to be completely honest, it feels closer to yesterday more often than not. College seems like eons ago, but leaving home… not so much. The separation never feels as distant, though, as we get close to a holiday, like Mother’s Day.

So, I made my way home to spend time with Momma. It’s her weekend. There are activities planned, as there typically are for Mom this time of the year, and I look forward to spending that time with her. I look forward to attempting to surprise her with some small trinket of my love and affection for her. In the end, though, I look forward to the fact that she is happy that her family is together to celebrate her this weekend.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I love you!

Sometimes divine providence is all you need

When I was a brash, young consultant, I did a fair bit of traveling across the Midwest, and I really miss it. I knew before taking another job, I wanted to have the ability to travel more than I had done. Being that I’m still relatively young and unattached, I still desire to travel to new locales.

In the last 8 weeks, for work, I have been as far north as Sturtevant, Wisconsin and as far south as Pass Christian, Mississippi. While all this travel can be tiring and at times, a hassle, it has been good to see the open road again.

In the last 8 weeks, I have ducked several major Spring weather systems. In March, while in Chicago, we missed several decent snow opportunities. In April, a tornado passed within 2 miles of where I live, causing destruction and havoc in its wake. Just last week, I found out that the very same system that cause my area’s tornado, dropped a tornado less than a mile from my Grandparents last home. As the south leaves the early Spring, our severe weather chances become less, but just days into May, provided what might have been the best duck of them all.

Last week, I was on the road with work in Little Rock, Arkansas. The seminar/forum lasted from Tuesday until Wednesday afternoon, with some optional training that would have lasted until 4:30pm on Friday. Seeing as how I had completed the very same training less than a year ago, and the fact that I live approximately 6 hours from Little Rock, I made a beeline out of Central Arkansas on Wednesday. I was disappointed to leave the 4-star hotel with the barnyard animals in the lobby, but it turned out to be a very good thing that I did.

On Friday, May 2nd, a little before 7pm local time, an EF-2 tornado was crossing the very same highway that I had traveled down two days prior. If I had not previously had the optional Friday afternoon training, I would have been approximately in the location pictured above at approximately the same time that the pictures were taken. To say the least, it’s a very harrowing thought.

Of course, there is a good bit of the what-if game played here, but really think about it… what if? What if my promotion had been delayed a couple of months? What if I had not been able to sit for the class? What if I had been in Little Rock on Friday? What if I had been on that lonely patch of road at a couple of minutes before 7pm?

In the end, I’m very glad those what ifs never did come to fruition. I’m glad that I was safely at home while those in Arkansas dealt with the tumultuous weather. I’m glad to know that no one was killed in the storm that produced the tornado.

Some people need large scale, global miracles before they can consent to the idea of there being a God. Some people feel comfortable mocking God for not providing such miracles. The sad fact of the matter is that these people are missing the fact that these miracles still do occur. If all had not been guided into place over these past 10 months, there is no doubt in my mind, those what ifs would have been a very real reality.

Sometimes, we need to stop and realize that divine providence is one of His greatest daily miracles. I am thankful I got the opportunity to re-learn this lesson the easy way.