Opinion: Rusty Saber's return signals spring's coming

This I know because I am back from a winter vacation on Maui. My wife and I annually spend six weeks there to avoid the ravages of winter. Being back is a sure sign of spring. Bring it on.

Truth be told, we had no notion of what sort of winter ravages we were avoiding. It all seemed so innocent: We left Springfield on a balmy morning in early January. The weather forecast for later in the week called for rain and lower temperatures. As everyone knows, that innocent forecast was prophetic indeed.

We had only recently settled in on Maui when a phone call from home alerted us to the arrival of the granddaddy of ice storms. Bit by bit, the details of the extent of the disaster began to reach us.

Most everyone I have spoken to has said how fortunate we were to miss the storm. I can’t deny that when given the choice of lolling on the beach with constant 80-degree weather or riding out a nasty ice storm with no electricity, 80 degrees with an ocean breeze will win every time.

Believe me, there was no chuckling on our part due to our “brilliant” choice to be on a tropical island at the right time.

We own a home in Springfield, as do members of our family and many friends. We kept the phone lines busy talking numerous times with family and friends. We received a running account of the happenings.

We needed to look no further than the Maui daily newspaper to learn the severity of the situation. On one day, an Associated Press story appearing in the newspaper about the icy weather conditions throughout the entire Midwest had a Springfield dateline.

The very next day the nation’s foul weather situation was demonstrated by two photos: One showed people standing in line outside a store to buy home generators; the other was a shot of a fallen tree completely covering a car. You guessed it – both photos were from Springfield. Springfield’s plight was important news half a world away.

With a sense of guilt, we focused on the happenings at home.

Don’t get me wrong; the guilt never caused us to consider chucking it all and heading for home. No. We were content to tough it out on Maui, offering condolences from afar.

At about the time the ice storm was getting under way, what appeared to be a serious threat of a tsunami was issued for the Hawaiian Islands.

It turned out to be a false report; however, when you are on a small island, a tsunami is really bad news.

None of the icebound Springfieldians we talked to were very sympathetic to our situation.

In Hawaii, the winter months of January and February mean an occasional cool day with temperatures in the low 70s. On one such cool day, I reasoned that few folks at home enduring near-zero weather would have the least bit of sympathy when I had to wear a sweatshirt.

Game interruption

Now that my trip is finished and Rusty Saber’s hiatus has ended, I’d like to mention the Super Bowl, which surely would have drawn comments had I not been gone.

The game itself confirmed that it can rain on football’s big parade, but it can’t rain out the parade.

The players performed well in spite of heavy rain. Unfortunately, it didn’t rain out the noisy halftime extravaganza. As in the past, I would have bellowed my protest at the halftime show.

Why was Prince on the football field in a heavy rain doing whatever it is he does? There I was, watching a football game when a rock concert broke out.

Halftime should allow the players to rest and the crowd to do what they may need to do before the start of the second half of the game.

Now that I have that off my chest, I can say that I am one lucky fellow: I spend six weeks in paradise and the remaining 46 in God’s country. On top of that, spring is coming!

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.