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In Aftermath, Reasons For Choosing Joy

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By TOM JACKSON

@tampatrib.com

Published: November 5, 2008

Owing to deadline constraints on certain corners of the dinosaur media, as this is written, procrastinators and traditionalists still are streaming to their designated voting stations.

It's a glorious afternoon - chilly and overcast, perfect for autumn - the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November 2008, the polls are yet open and, just like the crowd at Arrowhead Stadium who saw the Kansas City Chiefs surge to a 21-point first-half lead Sunday, nobody knows nuttin' from nuttin'.

But you, determined reader, have come here on the morning after Election Day - or, as pundits like to think of it, "Opening Day of the 2012 Campaign" - with knowledge of the various outcomes, accompanied by emotions triumphant or desultory.

If tradition held, magnanimous winners shaded boasting in messages of reconciliation and bygones; meanwhile, losers have begun angling for advantage even as their supporters mutter a bumper-sticker slogan: "Forget, hell."

It is to this latter half the ensuing remarks - conjured it bears reiterating, with only the vaguest impression about what Wednesday (today) holds - are intended.

We Are The Envied

Glum about the elections? Buck up. You dwell in the planet's most-envied nation, in that nation's most-envied state and in one of that state's top dozen counties. In short, whether by blind-bottomed happenstance or wise choosing, yours is a base of operations for which (educated stab here) 99.6 percent of the world's population would readily swap.

And in a little more than 90 days, pitchers and catchers will report to locations very near us to end their long winter vacation. Two reasons, minimum, this is important.

First, we are reminded that opportunities for renewal always present themselves. Second, as those opportunities emerge, we must proactively engage them, just as pitchers must sweat themselves silly relearning the art of covering first on balls hit deep to the first baseman's right.

Feel better? Not yet? OK, this ought to brighten your post-Election Day day: No more robo calls from Shady Hills window washer, white separatist and state house candidate John Ubele (YOU-bull).

Opportunities Accentuated

More? Easy. The Richey Suncoast Theatre's popular Christmas extravaganza, set for the last weekend of November and the first weekend of December, will be uninfluenced by Decision 2008.

Nor will election results reduce the abundance of Pasco golf courses that pair bargain rates with marvelous conditions. We'll still have sunrises over LeHeup Hill, sunsets over Boggy Bay and no shortage of remedies for barbecue cravings.

Lunch on Limoges will endure, as will dinner at the Cafe Grand. We'll browse the shelves of the Wiregrass Barnes & Noble; for the first time, we'll hit an upscale mall for Christmas shopping and keep sales taxes home in Pasco.

We'll still brake for randy deer dashing heedlessly across our thoroughfares this month, and marvel next spring when proud sandhill crane parents strut their golden offspring. We'll still find time to celebrate flapjacks, "holiday trees," kumquats, rattlesnakes and Pasco's earliest residents. We'll improve our recycling efforts.

And, just so the other side doesn't imagine we're going soft, we'll make no secret about plotting our getting-even strategy.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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