Our Spring Break Will Be Different Than Normal

It’s that time of year when Barb and I head south.

By the end of February, we’ve had enough snow and cold. Warmer climes begin to call.

For decades we pulled a boat to Florida, fishing the salt on both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Most years we camped on barrier islands under the palms.

Eventually, however, that trip became too long, Florida too crowded, and too many days on the road to get there.

We began spending time in the California desert about five years ago. While it lacked the fishing we so enjoyed in Florida, it nonetheless offered the change in scenery and climate we sought. It’s also only a couple of day's drive from Malta.

This spring we had planned to return, get our desert on and enjoy the sun, but our plans have changed. We’re still going south, just not as far.

I’m scheduled for a bit of surgery in Livingston, no big deal, but something I need done. I’ll be as discreet as Kate Middleton and say it’s simply abdominal surgery.

We’ll be gone for a few weeks while I recover.

It’s certainly a lame way to spend spring break, but I’m hoping to be at full strength again by the time the ice melts next month.

A few years after moving to Malta we decided to work on the house one March instead of traveling south. That was the only time this century we didn’t take a spring vacation. It was a mistake. For two weeks we painted and patched, hammered and sawed, all the while wishing we were somewhere else.

I suspect I’ll experience a bit of déjà vu next month.

Livingston has a milder climate than Malta, (doesn’t everywhere?) and more restaurants to enjoy, but it’s still Montana. Spring snow is a given. So are cold days.

But it probably won’t matter. I’m told to expect an extended period of inactivity. I couldn’t fish or tromp about the desert anyway.

I hope this doesn’t become an annual affair, a stay in the hospital to fix something. I’d rather fish, bask under a desert sun with a cold beer in hand, or spend a little time among the teeming masses.

I always got a little homesick before the end of our trips and started missing the dogs, the house, Malta. More years than not we’d head back a day or two early.

This year more than ever, I think I’ll be anxious to get home.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]