Yes, I flew the coop for a week

Yes, I flew the coop, so to speak. Mrs. Griz and I left behind us for a week all our worries and cares in Arkansas to revisit the ones we had left behind us in Kansas and Nebraska. I'm very thankful to my publisher, Kent Marts, for taking over my page-building duties while I was away.

And it was good to forget about things for a week and clear my mind so that I could restart in the new year and, hopefully, work more efficiently at the tasks which lie ahead. It seems that my mind, withlimited hard-drive capacity and low random-access memory, needs to just shut down once in a while and then restart in order to work to its maximum but limited capacity.

With all I was forgetting to do and then remembering when it was too late to do it, I was beginning to fear things were really slipping. But since I could still remember that I forgot, I concluded it was probably congestive mind failure rather than a total loss of thinking ability. Mrs. Griz may have another opinion.

Though it was hard to do, I left my work computer at home so that I could relax and focus all my attention on our brief vacation which, it seems, was mostly driving - another activity which can help clear the mind.

Yes, we visited with family - parents, brothers, sister, nieces, nephews, children and grandchildren. It was good to see them all again and catch up on events in their lives.

Since we spent a good part of our week in the car traveling to see everyone, Mrs. Griz and I had unusual opportunity to visit and talk. Sitting next to each other as we rode down the highways makes it more difficult to ignore each other and work on separate tasks. The only other optionwas to get out and walk, and we were hundreds of miles from home and usually 20 or 30 miles from the nearest towns. I’m happy to say neither one of us chose to walk.

We talked of dieting and exercise when we got home as we munched on cookies and ate hamburgers and French fries. Mrs. Griz suggested I need to spend less time in front of a computer in the new year and more time with her, but she continued to check email, send texts and look things up on her smart phone. I didn’t, but then I was driving.

We listened to old music on her car radio and might have stopped and danced on a remote, empty Kansas highway in the middle of the night, but I’ve never been able to dance and wouldn’thave wanted the deer and other wild animals to see me step on her toes and try.

We visited family, made it home together and are still married. My mind is cleared but doesn’t want to restart, and I’m still lacking in RAM and harddrive capacity. Guess I’ll just resolve to do the best I can with what I’ve got left.

And yes, other than a few tense moments usually caused by my inability to understand what she was saying or communicating by hand signals, Mrs. Griz and I had a great time together.

Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be reached by email at [email protected].