Semesters

The last few months at my household can best be described as “trying”.  Throw in two major holidays and a job change on top of a semester at school that was not going my daughter’s way and you have a really good recipe for the perfect storm. I think all three of us felt like we were the one carrying the entire load, and while I know this was not the case, if you feel that way does it really matter?

Fortunately the new year has started off much better. Of course I have I have to qualify this statement with the fact that it is Winter; the arm pit of seasons. I don’t necessarily lose my will to live during this time, but my want often suffers! But we finally got that new semester the three of us had been holding our collective breaths for. A fresh start. One can only say “hold on, it’s almost over” so many times before they too begin to lose hope, but often this is the only option. We practice our breathing lessons.

We all live our lives trying to make it over that next hump. Friday’s paycheck, the big test or the boss’s vacation…if I can just hang on until…Fortunately school, like the four seasons, is broken up in to manageable clips. Even a lizard in search a hot rock like me gets tired of sweating! Change keeps us both fresh and on our toes. The only activity more fun than decorating for Christmas is packing things up and enjoying a Spartan household, for about a week. Happiness comes in semesters.

Really isn’t everything temporary? The things we love don’t last forever, and would we truly love them if they did? If Santa came every night we eventually would become so tired of baking cookies that we might slip him a store-bought one every now and then *gasp*. The danger lies in forgetting that the bad times are temporary as well.

So don’t quit your job or leave your spouse just yet; neither of those operate on the semester system, and really they are not the things we need to change anyway. Math will pass, that demanding client will cycle and eventually the air will warm. It may not happen tomorrow, but there is always next semester.

It's not far...

My older brother moved around a lot in his almost thirty year military career, and while this offered me the opportunity to enjoy a few low cost trips to some cool cities, we really didn't see each other much. When he ended up a few hours away in Opelika Alabama the entire family was ecstatic! I don’t mind air travel, but it’s complicated and expensive; just being able to get in the car and visit for the weekend was a huge bonus.

But one of the first things I realized when I struck out on my first visit there was that the trip from Milledgeville to Opelika was also complicated. Turn here…drive a few miles on this two lane…look for this turn…there is no sign, but there’s a big tree…It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't like taking the interstate to Atlanta either. When I mentioned the trip to a friend he explained it to me in true Southern fashion, “it’s not that far, but there really is no good way to get there”. Exactly!

This was a more than a few years ago now and I will say that with the addition of the Fall Line Freeway the trip is certainly much easier. The new highway is four lanes, divided by a grassy median, with speed limits in some sections of sixty five miles per hour!  Progress, finished just in time for my brother to move away!

I ended up on a short section of this beautiful highway yesterday as I ventured from Milledgeville to Gordon. I understand that the ultimate goal of connecting two of Georgia’s larger cites (Columbus with Augusta) is not yet realized, but I have to confess that I didn't pass a single car on this highway coming or going. It’s somewhat of a joke to a few area residents, and a sore spot to several others. It chopped a few surface streets in half and blazed through some of the most beautiful property in Georgia. One of the affected areas was a property I hunted for many years.

Construction on this leg of the new road lasted for several years. I must confess that while the work was going on the hunting, if not improved, was a little more enjoyable. The big machines opened up areas where you could see farther than you could shoot and I often watched animals of all kinds cross the newly graded roadbed. But each morning as I sat perched in a tree high above the ground watching the sunrise, I knew that my days here were numbered. Did I think the new highway was a good idea? I guess after my years of traveling the ‘pig paths’ to Columbus I would be a hypocrite to say no, but why did it have to blaze through my favorite hunting spot? The answer is simple…it’s not far, but there is really no good way to get there!

Almost!

When I was a little boy my brothers and I watched every minute of Sunday NFL football that our single channel would allow. If we were lucky, or someone climbed on the roof and turned the antenna, this meant two games; if we were not, we either had to go outside and play football ourselves or watch a well-worn version of Bye Bye Birdie; a channel 13 favorite! Yes, I was raised in the caveman years of television.

Winter Sunday afternoons consisted of three little boys wearing any clothing item football related, draped over the furniture trying to find a way to stay focused for the four hours it took to decide the outcome of a football game. Often we would get up right in the middle of the action and go outside a throw the ball around. Of course we were practicing our ball handling skills, but the most important skill was learning to make a football move without the appearance of really trying! What you did was not as important as what you looked like while you were doing it! “It’s better to look good than to feel good and darling you look marvelous”…well, kind of, I know what Billy Crystal was trying to say!

Of course I have never been able to shake this idea of being cool completely, I am a male. But as I get older one of the things I've realized is that these professional athletes were trying to appear flippant partly to cover just how much pain that last amazing play, and really the entire season before it, inflicted! I now understand what my father meant when (after an awesome tackle) his first word was “Ouch” instead of “Yay”! Turns out missing work and missing school are two entirely different missings!

But of course there were valuable lessons hidden in this “be cool” training we practiced every day. I learned to approach every situation as though I belonged in it; I learned confidence. I learned that playing through the pain could mean working at a job I dislike while I waited for the one I really wanted to open up. I learned to not sound the alarm when a friend wanted help with a problem that terrified me.

But in spite of my fifty years of practice, this morning I almost slipped. As I attempted to place the massive 20 lb. bag of dog food on the self-check counter at Walmart, my lower back decided I should not. The look on my face as I frantically searched for a shopping buggy to carry the load to my car was obvious to the older cashier standing a few feet away and she politely asked me if I needed some help! “No thanks” I managed, “I just thought for a second I had lost my wallet!” Almost!