January Jabbering (aka random thoughts) Jan 28:
Since January is nearly over I thought I should try to jabber one more time before it exits. As January goes here, it has been relatively well behaved this year. Our eleven year old granddaughter has actually been complaining about the lack of “play in the snow” days (in spite of her reprieve from school yesterday because of icy roads in Fayette County.)
For me it has been a month of great highs and a few humbling lows. The unexpected news last weekend that SMALL ACREAGES has been Longlisted for a national writing award sent me into a state of euphoria.
The first thing I wanted to do after getting the news was to call Eileen Morgan, my high school English teacher, who never gave up on her notion that I was a writer during all those years I wasn’t writing much. Of course, I couldn’t call her, so I then indulged myself in a fantasy-movie-type scene where her angel-self dropped SMALL ACREAGES into a judge’s lap at exactly the right moment for it to be seen. What a magnificent teacher and caring human being she was — there is no way to quantify the number of lives she tilted toward the better. I am reminded once again of the long view a teacher (and perhaps a writer too) must bring to their work. The influence of a good teacher such as Mrs. Morgan endures long after she leaves the building.
But in typical Georgia-fashion I soon tumbled off my mountaintop high. First, I broke my little toe on an inelegant stumble to the bathroom in the middle of the night. (Endure, they say - nothing to do for it.) This was quickly followed by yet another grueling dental appointment this week in my year-long quest to implant teeth. (Endure, they say - yadayada.) Then every smidge of the tech world I tried to touch bit me. Even my credit card number got stolen online. It was as though W Bush’s The Internets united to frustrate and humble me. The national news of mass shootings and tragedies didn’t help either. So with my good foot, I kicked the proverbial dog (in our house that would be poor Ernie.) I’ve been hard to live with this week, I’m afraid.
And now it’s Saturday again. Here in Lexington the hometown boys are set to take on last year’s national b-ball champs tonight in Rupp Arena (GO BIG BLUE!) And over in Richmond my alma mater, Owen County High School, will play in the semi-finals in the men’s All A state basketball tournament. I can remember when OCHS went an entire season without winning a game, but that’s a story for another day. And no Big Blue fan will ever forget UK’s humiliation in last year’s NCAA tournament that Kansas won. The point of this ramble - if I have one - is that you have to keep on keeping on if you expect the good times to come round. So let’s keep keeping on this week as we welcome February and its faint whiff of spring to Kentucky.
Photo credit: Ernie Stamper /OCHS All A Tourney Jan. 26.