Happy New Year!!

Wow. It's 2006. I'm not even going to get into how weird that makes me feel. But, I will tell you about the past few days. Chris came up from Lake City (where he was visiting his family for the holidays) on the afternoon of the 30th. Mom and I got a phone call from him; he had managed to find his way to the downtown area of Waycross, and had no clue as to how to make it to her house. I figured it would be easier to drive down and get him than to explain how to get from there to here (I know I've mentioned how strangely this town is laid out), so I met him downtown. As it was a nice afternoon, we decided to explore the downtown, and we had a lot of fun. I won't get into too many details... but let's just say this town has some interesting old buildings.

A shot of Chris during part of our explorations....

Melissa and Alex arrived early that evening, and we went out to dinner at a local diner called Jerry J's, featuring some scrumptious down home southern cooking (i.e., everything fried), and upon returning home, we had a small pseudo-Solstice celebration. Melissa, Alex, Chris and I have been sort of celebrating the Solstices every December and June since the winter of 2000... although it's mostly an excuse to get together and act like weirdos/pyromaniacs. Yes, we are aware that the Winter Solstice fell on December 21st, not December 30th, but keep in mind, I was still in Russia on the 21st. Anyhow, the "solstice celebration" consisted mainly of a bunch of candles lit around and atop an old tree stump in the corner of the front yard. We sang all (four? five? six?) verses of Mother Earth and Father Time (a Solstice carol written by Chris to the tune of Angels We Have Heard on High - it's a great song, but my god, it's about three verses too long), Chris sang his new Solstice carol (another song about Mother Earth and Father Time, written to the tune of Greensleeves), and we made up a song to the tune of Oh Holy Night about a burning plastic box and some rosemary. Yes, we're a strange bunch. (This is all on video, as my father gave me a video camera for xmas - thank you, thank you! - so assuming I can get all the necessary cords and software to edit my footage, you may one day get to see what I'm talking about.)

"Everyone" has a candle...

Alex and Melissa burn as one.

The next day (New Year's Eve), we drove down to the Ghost Train at Kingfisher Landing, and (of course!) took many pictures. Then, we drove down to Folkston to the main entrance to the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge, and drove out to the boardwalk. On the drive to the boardwalk, we passed an alligator sunning himself on the side of the road, and along the boardwalk, we saw two more alligators and a snake, which we were unable to identify. We made some interesting video of the swamp (to which I may one day subject my poor students) and we took some great pictures from atop the observation tower.

Chris rides the Ghost Train

Melissa rides the Ghost Train


Melissa and Jane ride the Ghost Train


Jane rides the Ghost Train... again.


Chris, Jane and Melissa at the Okefenokee Swamp


Melissa and Alex at the Okefenokee Swamp


Me at the Okefenokee.
What do you think, my picture for the dust jacket?


What kind of snake do you think this is?

After leaving the swamp, we headed back up to Waycross, where we dined at Ruby Tuesday's (so disappointing) and then strolled over to Wal-Mart to stock up on some booze for the evening. (We are such a bunch of light-weights. We had 12 wine coolers and a bottle of champagne, and half of that is left over, and we were all sloshy. We're getting old, my friends.) While waiting for the stroke of midnight, we decided to film a murder-mystery with the new video camera, which turned out to be absolutely absurd. Again, this may one day make its online debut (but don't hold your breath). At 10:43, in homage to the good old days, Melissa, Chris and I went running down the street after the Ghost Train (yes, there was a train whistle at that time, but with this being Waycross, that was hardly surprising) shouring "wait for me!" while waving wooden swords from Korea. (In honor of Gwen, Alex sat on the front porch and looked embarrassed.) At the stroke of midnight, I opened the Russian champagne (yes Frank, I opened it myself), which for some reason we drank out of ice-cream dishes instead of champagne flutes or wine glasses (both of which were readily available, but we had been imbibing those wine coolers...), and then, old folks that we are, we went to bed. I've spent today recovering.

Jane and Melissa with a bottle of Russkoe Champanskoe


Our first toast to the new year.