World of white

All around me, I see white. It's January. It's cold. I don't think we've gotten above 20F (-7C) all week, and we're not expected to do so until next week. Maybe.

For the last two mornings, it was below zero when I got up. The forecast says we are getting about two inches of snow today. Oh joy! Well, it's January, and it's winter. Just three or four months left till spring.

But what to my wondering eyes appeared on my computer screen the other day? Sunny skies. People lounging around on the grass, wearing shorts and loose tops and wide-brimmed hats. A couple guys wearing hollowed-out melons on their heads. A couple girls in bikini tops. Needless to say, I paid very close attention.

They were among the spectators at this week's test cricket match at Cape Town, South Africa. India was playing South Africa at the Newlands Cricket Ground, and I was watching it live on my computer--during breaks in the action, the TV cameras look around for interesting things to see.

Every few minutes, we would get a wide shot of Table Mountain and Devil's Peak--very rugged and spectacular and just west of the stadium. And then, right after that, they would show the spectators, who would cheer and whistle and wave little South Africa flags or beer bottles and look very comfortable in their hot-weather attire. They looked very warm and happy.

Then I looked out the window again at my world of white. And shiver a little.

****

After nearly two weeks of quiet on the local sports scene, I returned to reality this week: Basketball fever is back with a vengeance. I'm back in the maelstrom of high school hoops for the next two-plus months. This week, I'm covering four games in five nights.

(But I'll be honest about it: I set my own schedule. If I want to complain to somebody, I need to find a mirror.)

And so another year starts. In the past, I began each new year by writing resolutions or goals I want to accomplish in the next 12 months. If I had done that at the start of 2010, they would have included getting a new car, meeting B again and going on my first-ever flight in a commercial airliner. All those things had one thing in common: despite the best of intentions, none of them happened.

Still, I had a good 2010, and I don't regret what did or didn't happen. My philosophy is that things take place for a reason, and you can't always understand why they do, at least not right away. Circumstances change. You have to roll with the punches and deal with the inevitable changes in life. Disappointments? Sure. But there were unexpected joys, too, and you need to balance one against the other.

For instance, as 2010 started, my friend S was still with her husband, my mom was still in the nursing home, getting more and more frail, and my older son was looking for a girlfriend on web dating sites but feeling increasingly discouraged with the women he would meet. All those things changed tremendously in the last 12 months.

So what lies in store for me during 2011? Who knows? Surely not I. The past year tells me that. I'm setting my sights and objectives a little lower in 2011. No great plans.

A couple milestones--one literal--lie ahead of me. At some point, maybe in late spring or early summer, my car will hit the 200,000-mile mark. When I bought it in 2003, it had 43K on it. And the big one is in early August: My wife and I will hit the 40-year mark; 40 years since our wedding. We haven't decided how we will mark the occasion. I want to do something special, something we will both enjoy. No bright ideas yet, but it's still seven months away. Plenty of time for one of us to get an inspiration.

I will be treating myself in late March. One of the NCAA's regional collegiate hockey tournaments will be held in Green Bay, about 140 miles away. It's set up like the regional basketball tournaments; four teams take part, with the semifinals on Saturday and the championship game Sunday. The winning team advances to the NCAA's "Frozen Four" finals, in Minneapolis a week later.

So it's time for me to order my ticket. I will go there by myself, but I may be able to visit S and T while down there--Oshkosh is about 50 miles away.

I visited them during the last week of 2010, and I was well chaperoned: I invited my wife to come along (We hadn't gone out of town over the holidays.), and she finally said yes. A short visit. We visited some quilt and craft shops in the area, and then we all went out to dinner at Golden Corral and then relaxed in the whirlpool at the motel.

In between, my wife came up with an idea: She had learned about a big display of Christmas lights at a downtown park, put up by the city of Oshkosh's parks department. It was dark by then, so that's where we went after dinner, The lights were spectacular--a variety of big displays, mainly done with Christmas lights. You pay $8 at the gate per carload and simply drive through the park (with headlights off), oohing and ahhing at all the colorful displays.

So where are the photos? Unfortunately, I had left my good camera back home, and my little one isn't good enough to get photos of Christmas lights. Next time, I will try to be better prepared.