Separation Anniversary Weekend

If you’re a strict constructionist, the anniversary should be celebrated on March 6 each year. That’s the date from the calendar back in 2011.

I’ve chosen to celebrate the annual event on the first Sunday of March, i.e. a day rather a date.

And after this past weekend, which was one great roadtrip, I think I’ve decided that the first weekend of March should be designated “Separation Anniversary Weekend.”

Last weekend was a doozy.
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1. Stopped and ate at a little place that I had driven by many times on trips to/from Floriduh during the 2 times, totalling 18 years, that I resided in that horrid humidity. Last Thursday was the first time I ever stepped foot in the Bluegrass Restaurant in LaCenter, Kentucky…population 1,009 per the 2010 census. Great buffet. I’ve never had better catfish.

2. Stepped inside The Ryman Auditorium for the first, and hopefully not the last, time in my life. The air is heavy with history. The seats are pews. The building opened 125 years ago as the United Gospel Tabernacle. If someone had passed the plate after Derek Trucks brought me to tears playing “Blue Sky”, I woulda emptied my wallet and asked if they would take plastic!

If that song had lead into “Midnight in Harlem” I woulda needed a snot rag.  If Susan had kicked off the lyrics, a-minute-and-20-in I’d have quivered.

“Well, I came to the city
I was running from the past
My heart was bleeding
And it hurt my bones to laugh…”

That was me in 2011.  The separation was NOT the primary cause of my plight. Stories there…another time.

3. We hit the Bluegrass Restaurant again on our way west. More catfish. Some of the same people were holding down lunch spots they had a day earlier. The owner comped us a piece of strawberry pie. I don’t expect to drive thru that town ever again without stopping in.

4. Discovered Echo Bluff State Park. So new that if you had the current official state of Missouri map, you wouldn’t find it. But you would find Eminence. EBSP is about 10 miles north. I bet it’s crazy at the park in July and August. I don’t plan to find out. We’ll be going in the off season. The Betty Lea Lodge easily makes my Top Five places on the “100 dollar a night” list.

5. A stroll around the spring at Alley Springs. I’ve always loved this place. It’ll be a regular stop on future visits at Echo Bluff.

6. Lunch at the finest spot in Cabool. Mexican. Decent fish tacos….my “go to” order whenever I’m at a new Mexican restaurant. It was my first time in “downtown” Cabool….almost as sad as the town where I started college. ( a story for another day…)

7. Back home in the apartment, we drank champagne and toasted the sixth anniversary of Separation Sunday.
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Separation Anniversary??

The first Sunday of March in 2011 is the day that the woman I had been married to for 37 years and I quit sleeping under the same roof. We hadn’t slept in the same bed for awhile.

I’m not going to get into all the details and history. Some of my friends have heard it all. Most of it has been written down…that’s what journals are for.

The split wasn’t ugly. It wasn’t all that pleasant either. It had been coming for awhile, after many good years and lots of adventures.

She pretty much nailed it in 3 short sentences that afternoon: “I’m not happy. You’re not happy. We’re not living here anymore.”

She beat me to the punch.  Eleven words.

It should’ve happened many years before it did. It is one more time that I let “heavy inertia” keep me from making a change.

I hope she is happy. I hear that she is. After-all, she’d lived with a “C.P.” for years. (another story, for another day…)

I know that I’m happy. I got a new life starting 3/6/11. No more heavy inertia for me.
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This is my favorite “break up song.” I especially like this line: “…Look on the bright side, You got a new life…”

Be. Just BE.