It's the end of the world as we know it...
Cue the song...you can find it on YouTube...or wherever you happen to listen to the music of your choice for the moment. “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” by REM.
It has to be the end of the world as we know it. Last week, we had record high temperatures for early December. Near 80 degrees in Poplar Bluff over in the Show Me State on the second day of the last month of the year of our lord 2021.
Half a world away, there was a blizzard warning issued for Hawaii. Well, parts of Hawaii. The parts of Hawaii that are way up high, as in the “Big Island summits.” One of those summits is Maua Kea, which has an elevation of 13,803 feet, which is pretty high into the sky.
Anyway, the National Weather Service office in Honolulu issued a blizzard warning which was in effect from 6 p.m. last Friday evening until 6 a.m. Sunday.
“Blizzard conditions expected. Total snow accumulations of up to 12 inches or more. Winds gusting over 100 mph.” And, in a bit of an understatement, the weather service advised that “Travel could be very difficult to impossible.”
And it was near 80 degrees last week in our little corner of the world...
Meanwhile (as always, with apologies to Mr. Colbert)...
Just finished reading titled “The River Where America Began: A Journey Along The James,” which was written by Bob Deans and published in 2007. Checked out a copy at Stinson Memorial Library in Anna.
As you might guess, the book is about the James River...in Virginia. Don’t think I’ve ever seen the James River. Then again, my only time in Virginia involved fleeting visits in a car...long ago.
The front flap of the book explains that: “From the founding of the first permanent English colony in America at Jamestown in 1607, to the fall of the Confederate capital of Richmond in 1865, the James River runs through the formation of modern America and the epic global change it stirred...
“...This is the story of Powhatan and Gabriel, of Jefferson, Henry, Lincoln and Lee. It is the story of all our people and the national narrative we share.”
If you happen to like history, check this book out...at the library...
Meanwhile...
I wanted to share something I thought was really special which happened last week on the Journey Through Life...
The story began last Thursday morning...yours truly was motoring from our hometown to metropolitan Anna to begin another day at The Paragraph Factory. Took the usual route...along old U.S. Route 51.
On the way to Anna, there were several places along the road where various critters had met rather unfortunate ends. In other words, road kill. A squirrel. A deer. And a possum.
The possum, which I thought had moved on an existence in the past tense, happened to catch my attention. The critter looked like it was moving. How could that be? Maybe I just thought it had been moving...when I drove past at 55 miles per hour.
A little later in the morning, I happened to drive past the possum again. And, once again, I thought I saw it moving. Nah. Just out of curiosity, in the early afternoon, I went back to where I had seen the possum along the road.
Turns out the possum was indeed moving. Well, I felt sorry for the furry critter, turned around and went back to where it was on the road. The idea was that I would at least attempt to move it off the busy highway. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure how that would be done...
At the same time, a couple of fellow travelers on the Journey Through Life apparently had the same idea. They had stopped along the road, near the possum. I stopped my car. One of the folks and your writer had a brief chat along the highway about helping the possum...with the occasional car zooming by.
I thanked the fellow traveler. A little later that day, I went past the place where the possum had been one more time. The critter was gone. I’m going with the idea that the possum had been rescued and taken someplace a little bit safer. We’ll just call it a story during the Christmas season with a happy ending.
Meanwhile...
...this time with apologies to REM...
It’s the end of this column, and we know it...and I feel fine...