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Sleep Late; Eat The Hoppin' John

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By STEVE OTTO

Steve Otto@tampatrib.com

Published: December 31, 2008

CEDAR MOUNTAIN, N.C. - It's supposed to get cold tonight, with either snow or an ice storm. Doesn't matter; we're not going anywhere.

We'll have a fire and stare out at the forested hills of Transylvania County, pondering what went wrong this year and what might be looming after a long weekend away from Florida, cell phones, endless assessments of what happened to the Bucs and speculation on why the printed word is dead.

If you are a believer in self-fulfilling prophecies, then tomorrow morning might be a good time to keep the curtains drawn and just stay in bed. We've pretty much convinced ourselves that 2009 is going to be little more than doom and gloom.

Maybe.

It's not easy finding good news out there. We drove up a mountain called Caesar's Head the other night in a heavy fog. It was one of the roads full of switchbacks, and every time we swerved it was almost an act of faith that the road was swerving in the same direction.

I get the feeling we're approaching 2009 in much the same way.

Morning Light

The next morning, I took our two dogs for a run up one of the trails near our place.

The sky just was beginning to get light but the fog had blown away, and from a ridge you could see a few scattered roofs and smoke rising from chimneys. It didn't look much different than the first time I stood on that outcropping years ago, except for a few more homes in the area.

The world looks different in the morning. The night before, coming up that mountain in the fog there had been that sense of the unknown and wondering what was around the corner. Now, in the early morning, there was a feeling of continuity and timelessness.

Obvious Changes

The mantra of 2008 was change, and there is no doubt change is here.

Most of us knew change was here long before the experts told us it was. All summer, news reporters would ask the financial experts if we were in a recession, instead of just looking around at soaring gas and food prices and the numbers of Americans losing their jobs.

As the summer dragged into fall and more institutions collapsed, there was a realization that this was not just a recession in the normal flow of things. Concern turned to panic, and politicians and experts turned on each other looking for answers without success.

Consolidated Lives

Now that the year is over, we've managed to bury ourselves and our sons and daughters in a mountain of debt, and we still are uncertain about what tomorrow will bring.

Like so many of you, I have friends who lost jobs this year. I know others who have cut back drastically, consolidating their lives and their dreams.

We drove into Brevard, the nearest town, and the Frau stocked up on the fixings for hoppin' john, that wonderful combination of black-eyed peas, rice and bacon that promises to bring luck in the coming year.

She'll cook that New Year's Day along with some collards and corn bread.

Maybe that will help, although now that I think about it, she made it last January as well.

Maybe I should have had seconds.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's blog.

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