malvern-online.com - James is stuck on cats

While Malvern Daily Record sports editor James Leigh is in China for the next two weeks, we’re anticipating periodic reports from the Far East as James whips them into column form to email back to the MDR to be published. Maybe he can get out and experience new things.

We make fun of James here in the editorial department. We kid him that all of his columns deal with just two things — cats and furniture. There are times he even fits both into the same column.

“Well, I was moving some furniture and the next thing I know my cat jumped on the couch,” James might write in a column.

Just before James left for the airport Monday he was instructed to write a column about leaving for China.

Tuesday morning when the editorial staff searched the email for James’ column, it was noticed that the first paragraph was about traveling to China. The rest was about his two cats and about having to take them to Texarkana for relatives to keep while James and his wife, Mary, were in China. One cat got stuck under the bed. There you are. Another column about cats and furniture.

We’re all happy for James as he will see an exotic new land, one few of us will ever experience. When James returns, I’ll be gone. Friday, May 23, I’ll be hitting this door at a dead run at 5 p.m. I will not return until May 29. James will run the editorial department May 22 until May 29. Okay, that’s just Tuesday through Thursday. Even though James has been here three years, it’s his first time, in my memory, he’s been at the wheel, so to speak.

Shira Kelley would take over when I’d been out of town in years past, but Shira hasn’t been here in several years. LaJuan Mooney and Sean Rock were stand-ins after Shira left for Oklahoma. LaJuan and Sean are gone. Even though all of the aforementioned writers were capable, I’d always phone the newspaper while on vacation.

“Why do you keep calling?” LaJuan asked once when I telephoned from the Gulf Coast. “Stop calling.”

“Get out of here,” James said, meaning get as far away as possible and don’t think about work for five days.

Two years ago I might have taken their advice. But things change. We could stay at a casino in Gulfport for four days free. The last time we went Jody got carried away at playing the slots and lost a load. They keep sending coupons for free rooms and meals to lure us back so they can squeeze some more money out of us.

Back before the Gulfport-Biloxi area became casino strip, we’d drive there a lot. There are plenty of things to do there besides gamble — mainly graze at all the seafood joints. But with gas at $3.69 now, it’s already too high and likely to be $4 by the time May 23 rolls around. My math says it would be well over $100 in gas just to get there and back. It’s not that the option of traveling to the Gulf Coast is out, it just seems less desirable.

If someone asked where the best place to vacation in Arkansas is, I’d have a quick answer — Hot Springs or DeGray Lake. That’s not because it’s only a few minutes from Malvern to either place. It’s because it’s true. No other place in Arkansas matches it.

Three years ago we bought a vacation package in Gulf Shores, Ala. First let it be said that Jody never met a stranger. If we go into a restaurant she’ll know everybody at the surrounding tables before we leave.

We were sitting in a restaurant and Jody started talking to a local couple sitting at a nearby table.

It would be a lie to say we’re tired of traveling. We loved it for years. But when half of the cost of vacationing is just getting to a destination, it’s time to stop and wonder if it’s worth it.

Nothing is written in stone yet. Jody usually has the final say on things. But, I’d say the better idea would be to stay closer to home during my time off, and just fight off the urge to call the office.