I never really thought I would be back in Baton Rouge.

I lived here as a child, I matriculated here as a teenager and young “adult”. I have attended football games here for the past fifty years. But it never really occurred to me that I would live here again.

Last August, when we had just moved into the house, Peggy asked me, “Is this a dream come true for you?”

Honest answer — I never dreamed it because it was never even a possibility. And to live less than three miles from Tiger Stadium? Unimaginable.

Last football season was the first season I have lived in Baton Rouge since I left LSU in 1983. We have come to over a hundred games since then, but always from a distance. Being able to sleep in my own bed on game night is a luxury I never expected to enjoy again. And let’s be honest — two of those years I lived in the football stadium itself, so there wasn’t a whole lot of “luxury” about sleeping in my own bed…

These were the thoughts that occurred to me while waiting for the 2015 season opener tonight against the mighty McNeese Cowboys. Speaking of luxury, Peggy and I were uptowning it tonight, too — sitting in the Athletic Director’s box for the game, chatting up Les Miles’ wife in the suite next to us — big time. Then the rain and lightning started. And continued. And continued. At least being in the AD’s box we were the first to know the game was being cancelled. More uptowning got us out of the stadium ahead of the traffic. We were at home and watching the games on TV before 9:00.

I absolutely love living here. I love running into people I went to elementary school with. I love when the veterinarian asks my wife if she is related to me because he remembers playing by the “culvert” in the creek that was next to my house. I love seeing college friends unexpectedly at the grocery store. I love being able to hop in the car and be on campus in ten minutes just to see what’s going on. I love visiting my old friend Mike the Tiger.

Mostly, I love that my Dallas wife loves it here. Really, that’s about as good as it gets…

I’m a patterns guy. Not like Albus Dumbledore looking at knitting patterns. Patterns of behavior and action. It is really one of my greatest strengths when dealing with people. And not the least because I recognize them in myself.

This week I took a phone call from a recruiter. I have been receiving calls for the past eighteen months from a particular company but I have been uninterested in discussing the opportunity. I attended a professional golf tournament last week with my former boss, and he asked me why I wasn’t talking to them. When I asked how he knew I wasn’t talking to them, he let me know that he was the one who gave them my name and contact information. The guy that is retiring there is one of Ken’s old friends. Ken thought I should at least listen to them.

I really love the company I work for, and I enjoy what I do every day. But here’s the thing — when these guys started calling me, Peggy and I were firmly (and comfortably) entrenched in Houston. I wasn’t about to uproot our entire existence to move to New Orleans.

Then, two things happened. My company asked me to move to Austin, so we got un-trenched. We sold the house, downsized, made ourselves infinitely more mobile.

And then I found out the company calling me is not located in New Orleans. They’re in Baton Rouge. World of difference.

The day I told Peggy I was going to take the call, she was preparing to go to Dallas to visit her mother. We had a brief conversation during which I shared with her the two points above and that Ken had told them to call me. We discussed a couple of pros and cons, then Peggy got up and said, “I’m going to start packing.”

I said, “I haven’t even talked to them yet!” She meant for her trip to see her mother. She has been laughing all week about that.

I had the conversation. I’m interested. It might be as much interested in going back to Baton Rouge, but I wouldn’t do that if the opportunity is not right. They’re interested. If I go down and interview they are going to offer me the job. That isn’t arrogance, I just know what I bring to the table, and I know what they need.

Peggy asked me this morning if I wanted to drive over to Marble Falls and go to the Blue Bonnet Café. This is where the patterns thing comes in. When she asks to go for a drive somewhere it is because she wants an uninterrupted opportunity to talk. We’ve been doing it since we were kids and didn’t want to discuss things in front of her parents. After Mike was born we would drive around until he fell asleep and then discuss whatever important thing we needed to discuss. I knew that was what she wanted to do, and I was very excited to hear her perspective.

We had a great drive and a great conversation. We had a great lunch and saw some great wildflowers. And when we got home I let the recruiter know that I would take the interview.

It will be a couple of weeks because they have a road trip planned with their largest producers. That is exciting to me because some of the people on the trip with them already know me. If they bring up my name they will hear good things. Then I’ll meet with them when they get back home.

First, though, I have to call my son and make sure he is OK with it before we even begin to have the conversation — he may not want Mom and Dad moving into his town. I will at least give him the option of telling us “No” before the conversation goes any further.

Then we just have to figure out what we really want to do…

The bluebonnet has been the state flower of Texas since 1901. In 1934, the Texas Department of Transportation adopted the rule that highway rights-of-way not be mowed during the flowering season for wildflowers, including the bluebonnet. As years passed, with the support of Lady Bird Johnson, certain areas along Texas highways were seeded with Texas wildflowers. A springtime tradition was born.

Today, you can find tourists cheating death on a daily basis from March to May, stopping their cars on crowded roadways and trying to capture the elusive perfect bluebonnet photograph. It is quite amazing to see people of apparently normal intelligence risking their lives in this way.

Each Easter in Texas, families dress up their children and go in search of the best fields of bluebonnets to take family photos. And, of course, to trample the beautiful flowers.

If you have never seen the wildflowers in spring it truly is worth a trip. Each year the highway department puts out a pamphlet of where the best wildflower viewing is to be found. Not just bluebonnets, but Indian paintbrushes in beautiful red, yellow coreopsis (also called tickseed — they look like a black-eyed Susan except the middle is closer to purple), and the fabulous Indian blankets (also called firewheel) grow all over the state during the spring. It can be a steadily changing color palate as the varying wildflowers bloom at slightly different times in the spring, and it is breathtaking.

All of that is background information. I have complained (in a good-natured fashion) for many years about people creating a road hazard by pulling to an abrupt stop to walk in the flowers, to take pictures of the flowers, their children sitting in the flowers, their dogs peeing in the flowers, whatever.

Now that we live in central Texas where the wildflowers are the most prolific, my wife has been sending pictures to me of my dog in the bluebonnets. I get tickled each time I receive one of the text messages with the pictures, but it is very hard to explain to someone without sounding like a grumpy old man. Peggy knows my schedule and waits to send the pictures when she is fairly certain I am in some serious meeting. I find it delightful.

And my dog really does look wonderful in the bluebonnets. Don’t you agree?

The girl don’t look too bad, either…

When I was a kid, two movies would come on television each year and captivate the entire country. Remember, there were only three major television networks, so virtually everyone was watching the same thing. One of those movies was “Gone With the Wind.” The other was “The Wizard of Oz.”

My family, like every other family, watched each of them every time they were broadcast on television. I know both movies inside and out. I know the Carol Burnett parody of “GWTW” almost as well as I know the real movie. And I know the other one, too. I watched it every year. I just hate those damn flying monkeys.

I really don’t know what it was about the flying monkeys that terrified me so, but I hated that part of the movie. I wouldn’t turn away, but I would dream about it for days afterward.

It’s really a pretty dark story if you think about it. A girl disobeys her guardians and gets sent to Purgatory to try to figure out what she did wrong and how she can get back to the ones she loves. When she lands in a new town the first thing she does is kill somebody and steal her shoes. Then she runs off with a dude she just met to meet “the Wizard.” It’s like a really dark “After School Special.” They even almost die in a poppy field. This is not a movie for children.

Which is what makes the play “Wicked” so good. It starts from the viewpoint that the story you grew up with is incomplete at best and then fills in the gaps. It is a genius bit of scriptwriting that takes us from the story we know so well to the new “truth” in Oz. I wish that I had written it.

Blogger’s aside: I have also read the book from which the play was allegedly adapted. If you enjoyed the play, do not read the book. Other than the character’s names and a few other items, the play is not the same story as the book. If you have neither seen the play nor read the book, see the play before you read the book. Just trust me on this one.

Peggy and I saw “Wicked” again this afternoon at the “Broadway in Austin” musical series. The story is clever and the writing is great, but it is the music that takes the show and your emotions to an entirely different level. We see the show every chance we get, and so far it has never disappointed. I cannot recommend it enough. In fact, if you get to the intermission and you haven’t already decided you love it, you might need to see a doctor. Or, like the Tin Man, you might need a heart…

Here is the capper — now that I have seen the play I don’t hate the flying monkeys anymore. How’s that for closure?

It is just so good.

As I was sitting at my desk today I realized it was January 20, the day the newly elected president gets sworn in every four years. No president is getting sworn in today, but seeing the date reminded me of this day five years before.

I cannot remember another day in my lifetime that brought so much hope to so many people. The inauguration of Barack Obama was a landmark day in American history. I never believed that I would see an African-American president in my lifetime, and I know that most of my African-American friends would (and did) say the same thing.

At that time I worked in an office where more than 60% of my coworkers were African-American. We all stopped working to watch the president take the oath of office, and there were more than a few tears as it took place.

The day after election day had been rowdy in the office, but this was much more significant and solemn. One of my friends, as she cried, said, “It’s really happening.” It was almost as if she could not believe it until she saw the oath of office administered.

As a person who remembers the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, it was amazing and humbling to see this result only a little more than forty years later. I know that forty years sounds like a long time, but that is rapid progress. Not rapid enough, but faster than I ever thought could happen.

What I remember most about the rest of that day is going to the Houston Rockets basketball game that night against the Utah Jazz. I’m sure the game was exciting and I seem to remember that the Rockets won the game. But what I most remember is the National Anthem before the game and the way the people in the Toyota Center were singing along. I wasn’t in New York after September 11, but I have never been part of a sports crowd singing the Star-Spangled Banner with more gusto than what I heard that night.

Something was different. Everything was different.

The year was 2004. Peggy had come through a battle with cancer that turned into the complete loss of her voice for many months. In the meantime, she had been working out with a personal trainer for a couple of years and was in the best shape of her life.

I was gently exhorting Peggy to get a job. Actually, I’m a guy, so I am not certain that my exhortations were all that gentle. But they were persistent and consistent.

When our son was six years old Peggy came home from work to be with him. She stayed home with him through junior high school while serving in numerous volunteer roles at school and church. When he started high school I told Peggy that I needed her to find a way to contribute financially so we would be able to afford to send Mike to college in four years.

Then she got cancer, then the battle to regain her voice, and I stopped asking her to figure out what kind of job she wanted to get. I just asked her to get well.

She was given a clean bill of health. In fact, the doctor told her that her outstanding physical conditioning played a role in her recovery. I began exhorting in earnest, and she began exploring avenues.

Understand, Peggy had been tremendously successful in her ten year career before coming home to be with Mike. In fact, if she had continued working she would probably have been the Chief Information Officer of the company for which she had worked. But things change quickly in the cyber world and her knowledge from eight years before was pretty much useless now. Hence, her quandary.

It was her personal trainer, Becky, that offered the most obvious solution — get certified as a personal trainer and join Becky as her partner. Peggy threw herself into obtaining the most rigorous personal training certification in the United States, and in a couple of months she was working with clients.

Her practice grew very quickly. You would have to know her to understand how positive an influence she is, and that translated quickly into clients. She developed a reputation for working extremely well with elderly people who were preparing for surgery or recovering from injury, and doctors in the area began sending clients to her to get help.

Peggy views her job as teaching her clients enough that they can stop coming to her. She tells each client this when they begin. For some reason — maybe even for that reason — they just want to continue working with her. Or maybe it is just because she is the most loving and compassionate person you could meet. And then she kicks your ass in the gym. But always with a smile on her face.

Peggy paid for Mike to go to college. He graduated two years ago with no student debt. More importantly, she found a calling. She loves helping people, and they love her.

Today is the last day of her training practice in Katy. She has been driving from Austin to Houston two or three days every week since we moved. She has been helping some of her clients transition to a new trainer, and some of them will now work out on their own.

Peggy is pretty confident she will find something to do in Austin. I’m no longer exhorting her to do anything except what she wants to do.

I cannot express how proud I am of her and the work she has done. And I look forward to having her in Austin a little more frequently, too!

We thoroughly enjoyed our last day in Las Vegas. We typically try to fly out in the afternoon so we can do a few more things before we leave but still get home before it’s too late at night. This works particularly well if you are leaving on a Monday.

We had Las Vegas to ourselves as we walked around and said our goodbyes. The weather was cool and a little overcast, so it was a good morning to walk. We ate lunch outside and shared something called “Frozen Hot Chocolate” for dessert. It was not hot, but it sure was good. So good that even my personal trainer wife ate some of it.

We got home Monday night and went to work on Tuesday, then we headed to Brenham, Texas for a Hot Flashes Christmas show on Tuesday night. Great audience, great show, great time had by all, then a long drive back to Austin. Tomorrow Peggy has to drive back to Katy to work with her personal training clients and I have client meetings in Austin.

It’s a little bit hectic, but it usually is this time of year. When you add in having to introduce yourself to all the clients in a new city at the same time your wife is traveling three hours three days a week, that only creates a new level of hecticity (not a real word, but you know what I mean).

We have our last Christmas shows next weekend, and Peggy has already set a date for ending her training in Houston, so it will calm down a little bit after that. Then we can begin to figure out what living in Austin is really all about.

Or we can just keep traveling all the time. That’s an option, too.

Well, three out of four ain’t bad.

Tonight, our last night in Las Vegas, we decided to go see Shania Twain. She was performing in the Celine Dion theater in Caesar’s Palace. The headliners frequently take the time between Thanksgiving and New Years off, and they get acts to appear in their place. Shania is Celine’s replacement for a few weeks.

To be fair, we should have seen Shania before we saw Justin Timberlake. The show and the evening were so special last night that anyone would pale in comparison. Plus, you don’t realize until you see the show how much of Shania Twain’s career was really about music videos and not about music.

That might not be a completely fair statement — she has the highest selling album by a solo female artist in any genre in the history of music — but I challenge you to remember a Shania Twain song and not think of the video first. And I sang “From This Moment On” in many weddings in the late 90s.

Still, she has a lot of hits, and she sang them all. I wouldn’t exactly call her an entertainer, but she made sure not to leave out any of the songs her fans love. And there was a live horse. I’m still not sure what that was all about, but it was interesting.

It was a show her devoted fans would love. For us, hey, dinner was fantastic!

As I am writing this I realize that part of the problem is that Shania’s popularity was based primarily on her sexuality, and she came along after Peggy and I were already married. Maybe if she had hit when I was younger I would find her music more interesting. Or maybe I am just a little bit of a music snob.

Whatever, if you can go three out of four in anything you are doing pretty good.

Today was our first unpacked Sunday in our new home. We got up and went to a church very close to the apartment, came back and changed, and then spent this beautiful day exploring the area around our new home.

We went and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, the Iguana Grill. We love the place but have never lived close enough to just run over there for lunch. It was a particular favorite when we had the boat club membership because it was on the way back to the condo from the marina. Now we can go anytime and be there in about twenty minutes.

After lunch we drove a bit and then walked along the Colorado River near our home. It is technically called Lake Austin but it is just the river with a dam that helps control the water level. We saw some beautiful scenery that is all within walking distance of our apartment.

Part of that scenery is the Pennybacker Bridge that crosses Lake Austin right by our home. The Pennybacker Bridge is a steel arched bridge that spans 1,150 feet across Lake Austin and connects the north and south sections of the Capital of Texas Highway, considered one of the most beautiful highways in the US thanks to this unique bridge and the surrounding miles of Texas hill country. It was built in 1982 and made to look old to fit into the surroundings better, and the arched steel allows the bridge to have no columns that interfere with the water traffic on the lake below.

We took this picture on our walk today. We can walk Allie down here from our apartment and see this amazing view. She loves to get in the water. And it is right here.

So far the new casa is a big hit. Of course, October in Texas is generally a big hit, but the early returns are promising.

It was a pretty great Sunday.

When Peggy and I got married in 1985, we went to Keystone, Colorado for our honeymoon. We got married in Dallas in August on a day that reached 108 degrees. We wanted to be cooler than that on our honeymoon. I mean temperature — the other was never a possibility. We spent eight days and never saw a temperature above 75. And a tradition was born.

Another tradition has kind of evolved over time, and it is a little scarier. Our lives have a habit of changing shortly after these annual trips. It doesn’t happen every year, but it has happened enough times to be noticeable. To Peggy. Which is really all that matters.

When we came home from our eighth anniversary trip in 1993, my company offered me a promotion that moved us from Dallas to San Antonio. While we were on the Colorado trip in 1997, that same company made the announcement that they were merging with another company and closing many offices. They offered to transfer me to Kansas City. I declined, and a few months later we moved to Houston with a different employer.

When we were about to leave for our fifteenth anniversary trip in 2000, the company that had sent me to Houston announced that it was in dire financial straits. When we got home I began work for another company, and my prior employer went out of business at the end of 2000.

In 2004, I accepted a job while we were on vacation and started as soon as we returned home. Then, in 2007, while we were on vacation, I got a call from my current employer offering me a job. I started the new job shortly after we returned from the trip.

So, the day before we left on vacation this year, the CEO of my company visits my office and tells me he has some plans for the company and he wants me to be a part of what he is planning. He said, “Don’t worry about it — go enjoy your vacation and we will talk when you get back.”

We talked when I got back. After sixteen years in Houston, Peggy and I are moving to Austin. The vacation was wonderful. It will be hard to leave what has become home, but we are looking forward to the next adventure. And, to be honest, I may be just a little bit afraid to go back to Colorado for vacation next year…