Collecting an old debt

Savannah, Georgia, owes me a good time (or at least some good weather) and next week I aim to collect.

The last time I visited Savannah was in 2005, when I presented a paper at a conference during a cold, dreary, wet February. I remember driving to the Columbus airport through a snowstorm in my husband's car, a tiny Honda with manual transmission, which was usually pretty good for highway driving but not so great with snow all over the road. It was a tense two-hour drive with a lot of stop-and-go, which means a lot of stomping on the clutch, shifting, and stomping again. I don't know if it was the cold, the clutch, or the stress, but by the time I got to the airport, my left hip felt as if it had been attacked by thugs with truncheons.

Then I squeezed my sore body into a seat on the plane and sat without moving for what seemed like days but was probably a couple of hours. When the plane stopped and I tried to get up, I couldn't.

It was raining in Savannah and cold, and I didn't have any money so I had to walk everywhere, which sent daggers of pain up and down my leg. I took aspirin and did stretching exercises, switched shoes, and sat at every opportunity, but the pain only got worse. I remember finally finding someone who took pity on my pain and gave me some serious painkillers so I could sleep, but then I didn't want to get groggy for my presentation so I postponed taking the pills until my part was over--and then I surrendered.

I don't have much memory of that trip aside from misery, but I'm giving Savannah a second chance. Next week I'll be giving a paper at the College English Association conference, and although my paper is scheduled for Thursday afternoon, I'm arriving Wednesday and staying until nearly noon Sunday.

I don't intend to be in pain because that hip problem is now under control. (Just a little arthritis, and the right kind of exercise keeps it from flaring up.) And I don't intend to drive through a snowstorm on the way to the airport, but this is Ohio so you never know. And I certainly don't intend to drive that old manual Honda because we got rid of it years ago.
 
Savannah in April has got to be better than Savannah in February--and best of all, I'll have a rental car and plenty of time, so I hope to visit some wildlife refuges to look at birds. Of course I'll give my paper and attend some other sessions, but after a long, cold, wet winter, I'm really looking forward to soaking up some spring.