Rusty Saber: Rusty trades winter wonderland for calm beach

Dodging the weather

For years folks have asked why I make the annual excursion to Maui. As it happens, no one has asked why my wife and I spent the past six weeks on a Hawaiian island. It must be the severity of Springfield’s winter weather that has prevented that silly question from being asked.

I don’t apologize for the fact that we missed a lot of unpleasant weather. It didn’t take long for the weather to turn sour.

We left for Maui on the morning of Jan. 7, several hours before tornadoes ripped through the area. We were quite relieved to learn that our family and friends had not been injured, and their property was not damaged by the storm.

Throughout our vacation, phone calls to Springfield family and friends were laced with not so gentle descriptions of zero temperatures, more ice storms, snow, sleet and other unfriendly surprises that winter had in store.

As for me, I’m always happy to bypass anything resembling a winter wonderland. As luck would have it, we didn’t miss out completely on the winter fun. On our return flight, we spent an extra day lounging in the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and eventually a nearby hotel room; a sleet storm in Springfield had closed the airport.

Since our return to Springfield, the weather has been like a yo-yo; it’s nice one day, lousy the next. It wouldn’t cause me to shed a tear if I were still on our Maui beach.

As difficult as it was to leave a beautiful and warm spot, I take comfort in knowing that spring is not far away.

Once ice storms are only a bad memory, we will be face to face with springtime in the Ozarks. Folks, it doesn’t get any more glorious than that.

It may be that this winter has been objectionable in the Ozarks, but we have friends from northern Minnesota who annually visit Maui while we are there, and they returned home this year to 40 F below zero. Now that’s unpleasant and certainly justifies a winter trip to the tropics. It must take special courage to leave the warmth and return to the frozen tundra.

During our time away, I lost touch with most of what was going on in Springfield. I have the back issues of the Springfield Business Journal to bring me as up to date as I need to be.

It’s well nigh impossible to ignore the continuous 2008 presidential election campaign. The election won’t be until November, but the search for delegates at state primaries and caucuses has been in full flower for months. Media have covered it as though the election was to be held soon, not eight months from now.

Whether one is icebound in Missouri or tanning on a beach on Hawaii, the political races go on and on. The daily ups and downs of the candidates are known to anyone receiving a newspaper or a TV signal.

If there can be an upside to the election news, it’s that as the caucuses and primaries came and went, the losing candidates began to drop out of the race.

Millions of dollars have been spent by candidates traveling state to state seeking acceptance. Had the Rusty Saber been open for business the last few weeks, the campaign already would have felt pokes from the Saber.

As this is written, it appears that either Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination. Arizona Sen. John McCain will be the Republican candidate. Once the two candidates are officially named, what is likely to be a record campaign-spending orgy will be launched.

It will be good to be home – as soon as spring arrives.

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