goodbye and hello

I went to a wedding in Oregon many years ago. Have you ever been there? It is a beautiful state, and I wouldn't raise a stink if I had to go live there. Mountains, long, rolling valleys, colorful orchards and farms, the wonderful Hood River... (which will take you to the ocean if you care to follow it that far.) In my opinion, Oregon has it all.

That trip was almost indescribable. I came home perfectly refreshed and stayed that way for 2 years. I'm not kidding. I laughed for 10 days straight; I have never had that much fun that constantly at any other time in my life.

There was, however, 1 sad moment during the trip. We were driving through the mountains, laughing and enjoying the scenery, when suddenly a squirrel, (who was probably enjoying the scenery as well) didn't see us and leaped in front of the car. As we sped along we all looked back and there, sure enough, the poor squirrel lay in the middle of the road, flopping and thrashing. It took a lot of begging (on the part of the females in the car) to get the driver to turn around, but eventually we did it. We didn't want to rescue the squirrel, we just wanted to run over him a second time and put him out of his misery. I'm sorry to say once that was accomplished we even found a reason to laugh over that. I'm telling you, there's just something about that Oregon air...

Anyway, that's how the month of February felt to me. It was a lovely month; relaxing, quiet, in some ways deeply refreshing. But to be honest, I feel like the squirrel after it had been hit the first time. It was a beautiful lousy month and I'll be glad to see the back of it.

I have no idea why I just told you all that. Maybe to explain the post I wrote a couple days ago? Maybe just to let you know I'm annoyed that this year is leap year and February will be even longer than usual? I don't remember.

What I wanted to write about was super powers. Have you ever wished you had one?

A few years ago, when we had 3 teenagers in the house, there were several discussions about super powers and what my sons wished they could do or who had the best one. I think one of my sons wanted the ability to control atmospheric pressure for some reason, and another one wanted the ability to shrink and grow things, like a submarine. He wanted to be able to shrink one down, stuff it in his pocket, carry it to who-knows-where, enlarge it, and then launch it on "the enemy".

Of course, we can't forget the Hollywood superheroes: Spiderman, the Wolverine, Ironman...they all have wonderful superpowers and can do things most boys only dream about. However, I don't think they can hold a candle to the super power I'm going to invent. I'm going to come up with a way for my brain to communicate with my computer no matter where I am or how far away from the keyboard I get. I have the best ideas about things when I'm not near my computer-blog posts I want to write, emails I need to send, things I need from the store, miscellaneous problems solved...all these thoughts and more come to me when I'm either in the shower, laying in bed in the middle of the night, driving the car, or out walking. Wouldn't it be amazing if you could just think a thought, think it to your computer, have it "hear you", type it up for you, and save it in Microsoft word? No more brilliance lost.

So, as I sit here poised between two months, on a day that didn't exist last year, and won't exist next year, those are my thoughts-saying goodbye to a lousy 28 days and hello to spring and a brand new super power. What's on your mind?