Letter from the Editor

My family Christmas trip west to Phoenix was not without guilt. I always feel guilty leaving the office over the holidays. Newspapers, like police and fire, still have shifts to cover. If the newspaper misses an issue, I pray it doesn’t come on my watch.

But the guilt this time was nearly overwhelming. The calls started as I was sitting in the Arizona sunshine Thursday afternoon. A co-worker called to ask if she could work from home as travel was being discouraged.

“It’s sunny and 60 degrees here,” I said. “What possibly could be disrupting travel?”

Snow and wind and freezing temperatures. The paper got out thanks to some dedicated staff members. I tried not to think about work. (Hey, even Cinderella gets a day off every now and then).

My family — Karen and our three adult children — spent five relatively warm days together in Phoenix. We missed the white Christmas at home but remained occupied there.

We hiked, shopped, ate and drank too much, and played board games with family and friends. We watched “Elf,” and that all-time Christmas favorite, “The Muppet Movie.” Well, maybe not a Christmas classic but a Rieger family favorite.

But as soon as I landed Sunday night, the guilt pangs came back. At the airport, the parking lot attendant started in on me. “Man, you missed it,” she said. “We got 14 inches in about eight hours Thursday.”

Good thing I opted for extra covered parking. No scraping was involved. The highway home was clear but neighborhood streets were a mess. First thing Monday morning, I got stuck in the newspaper’s uncleared parking lot. It was punishment for enjoying myself while everyone in central Oklahoma suffered.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 9:47 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.