Will he ever shut up?!?!

I still can't believe I'm here! The great state of Michigan...This is great!

I mean, when you consider some of the facts, it really puts it in a strange perspective. I left Michigan in November of 1990 when I was (just barely) 18 years old. I returned in November of 2002 when I was (just barely) 30 years old. TWELVE YEARS...to the date. My official start day in Basic Training was November 20th, My first day that I reported for duty at the Gaylord NWS Office was November 20th. Weird, eh?

I still can't believe it. I've been in Meteorology for 12 years, but never in my home state. It's weird to look at maps of my area of responsibility and for the first time, the "Mit" is staring back at me from the map. It's like...It's MINE now! It's wierd for me to write a weather product and the words I'm using consist of towns from my childhood, which seem a lifetime ago if not another life altogether. "The National Weather Service in Gaylord has issued a Wind Chill Advisory for much of the Northern Lower Peninsula, including the towns of Traverse City, Mio, Alpena, Oscoda, Manistee..." Just down right freaky-wierd I tell Ya'!!!

As young boys, my brother and I dreamt of living "Up North". Not just going up for hunting season, actually LIVING up there. Our dad would bring us back down to earth with the sobering reminder that "There's no work up there". No work....HA! It took me twelve years, but By God, I found it!

Who 'da thunk it??? Surely my dear old mom was losing hope. When I left, she thought, "That's ok, four years, he'll be back...I can handle it." Four years came and gone like a season...and nothing. Farther away in fact! About the time we were all preparing ourselves for the fact that I might never again be a Michigander is when (I believe) the Lord started working on it.

I remember one night, on top that lonely mountain in Jackson Kentucky, just about resolved to be content with my location. I was on a midnight shift. We had got a hold of the news that a certain fellow who lived near by, that was also the Breathitt County School board Chairman, was getting off scott free. The...umm...gentleman shot a neighbor over a fence argument (the victim survived). The grand jury was "Convinced" by a court official just to let it go and save tax money because, "He's to powerful and he's a [certain surname]...ain't nothin' gonna happen to him anyhow...Y'all just be wastin' our time and tax money'". So they did. Sad. Incidentally, Mr. [Happy, will call him] was also accused just a couple years earlier of beating his wife with a tobacco stick. FYI, nothin' ever came of it either. To this day, he sits on the Breathitt County School board.

At any rate, so there I sat on top that mountain. I was outside taking a break and looking up at the sky. It's hard to believe a place so beautiful could be so full of hopeless people. Granted there's good folks there too...REAL good folks. Unfortunately, the negative seemed to take center stage. I knew I couldn't raise a child there. I stared up at the sky...hard...looking beyond the stars into the vast blackness of the sky as if focusing and staring harder would help me see Him, "Please God, You gotta get me outta here!" I think He heard. I know He did.

Anyhow, that's behind me now and here I am. I have to admit, I half expected a ticker tape parade as we crossed the state line for the last time as visitors, but nope. Must be that no one in Davis could get off
work that day...that's ok. There will be plenty of time for celebration. Rest of our lives as a matter of fact!

Here's some more weird facts:

I lived out of state 50 % longer than I ever lived in Davis.
I lived in Ohio (combining both times) AS long as I lived in Davis.
Explanation- I was turning 11 when we moved to Davis...I moved out 18 years and 1 month...so total Davis time was about 7 years and two months. I lived in Ohio 7 years and 9 months.

I lived in Michigan 18 years, I lived outside of Michigan 12 years.

I only drove in Michigan legally for 2 years and 1 month before leaving. In this time, I grossed 5 traffic (and other) violations (most of which were dropped by the way). I've driven elsewhere for 12 years (500% more) and netted 1 traffic ticket.

In ALL THAT TIME, I've only been without a Michigan Drivers License for 13 months.

I have never paid Michigan Non-Resident anything! (and nearly never missed a hunting season)

Anyhow, I have to draw the line somewhere. There's more wierd stats, but we'll discuss them over a cold one!

So two logical questions would be,"So with all that time out of state, you still consider Michigan home? Comparatively speaking, with so little time living in Davis, you still consider that your home?".

You bet! I feel more at home here in just 3 months, than I ever did in Ohio or Kentucky. It's more than just a physical location. It is a fulfilled dream of sorts. It is the completion of a psychological longing. It's returning to the place of your youth. Everything from your youth is ALWAYS better than adulthood, or so our memory's would have us believe.

So what happens when the honeymoons over? What happens when I realize that I left a child, came back an adult, but those adult responsibilities and stresses didn't stay in Kentucky or Ohio. They are in fact waiting for me to acknowledge and handle them. When reality comes in and says, "Keith, you made for yourself an imaginary utopia. Over the last 12 years, you just thought if you could only be back in Michigan, everything would be OK...you would be home, in your comfort zone, in your protective womb...Keith that place doesn't exist, it is just a dream.".

What will I do? I'll chuckle! I sit back and grin and what a sweet chaotic roller coaster life is. And how awesome it is that I know a God who longs to give us the desires of our heart. I'll take solace in the fact that He put me back up here because I wanted to be up here. It was a long winding road, but what a sweet one. Would I have had it any other way? NO WAY. I left a boy, whose idea of a long trip was going into Mt. Clemens. I came back a man, that's been from one coast to the other. That left with $60 and came back with a great, unmeasureable and unitemizable fortune, that includes my life experiences, my wife and my baby girl.

Hot Damn Folks! If this has been the first 30 years, what does the next 30 have in store! Bring it on!