“7 / 7 / 07(+1)…”

At this very minute (7/7/08), I am sitting around awaiting the signed Decision Memo that officially notifies The Whole World & Everybody Living Here that the Desoto Ranger District of the Desoto National Forest intends to issue a Special-Use Permit for us to have the 2008 Bear Whiz Enduro in September. Coinciding with the enduro is the planned and long-awaited “Grand Re-Opening” of the Rattlesnake Bay OHV Trail, following a ‘Temporary Closure’ that has dragged on for almost 5½ years (due in large part to poor planning on the part of the previous District Administration).

Thinking back over these past 63 months and all the things that have come to pass during that time, it seems more like 20 years since we last ran an enduro at The Bay. I am fairly certain that I have consumed something close to 20 years’ worth of Extra-Strength Tylenol and various brands of antacids as a result of some of the more ‘intense’ efforts to get the Trail reopened and our enduro-promoting efforts back on track. On the ‘bright side’ though, having the time off from promoting enduros at Rattlesnake Bay freed up my calendar to spend a little time during 2005, 2006 & 2007 persuading the Administration on the Chickasawhay District to allow us back onto that District last year. I take on little projects like that when I get bored. But I digress…

I find it sort of weird (for lack of a more appropriate term) that some periods of time can seem disproportionately long while other periods often can seem so much shorter than the actual time that has elapsed since some occurrence that marks a particular date, when looked back upon. While the 5 years, 3 months & 6 days that have passed since the former Rangerette closed the Rattlesnake Bay OHV Trail currently seems so much longer than it actually has been, the 12 months (today) since the untimely passing of our good friend Ed Larosche seems like just a few weeks ago. Last July, I was sitting around waiting on Official Authorization for the enduro we had near peaceful and serene Ovett, MS. Strangely, it currently feels like much longer than a year when considered in the context of how long ago I was in much the same situation awaiting word on the 2007 enduro, but precisely the same date, when associated with getting the news of the accident is as clear in my memory as some of the activities I engaged in only last week.

I figure that there are ‘trained professionals’ in the field of Psychology who can explain this quirk of the human mind, but maybe it is better not to fully understand precisely what makes some of us tick. I have found that it can be somewhat risky for me to get too close to ‘mental health professionals’ who might, for no legitimate reason of which I can think, conclude that the World might be better served if I were less free to mingle amongst the General Public without close supervision (I think that is pretty close to what I recall my ‘evaluation’ stating…). With this in mind, I will probably settle for continuing not to know why a lot of things are as they are and just keep on doing what I do (although rumors of a lot of things I have done are grossly exaggerated).

It would be my most humble and sincere desire that all of us continue to keep Ed’s family in our thoughts and prayers and never forget how much richer we all are for having had Ed Larosche in our circle of friends for as long as we did.