January 2007 Archives

So is there any life here? Or is this blog a relic?

A little bit of both. For now.

All my life, my interests have waxed and waned. Take running, for instance. For years I ran, then gave it up, ran a few more years, then gave it up again. Same thing with bicycling. I idolized my Trek 715. Now it hangs in the garage, on a hook directly in front of my car, where I can see it whenever I pull in, always reminding me of the good times we've had. Sherlock Holmes was a burning passion for most of my youth and much of my adulthood. Now he sits on the back burner, simmering, until such time that some spark kindles a renewed interest in things Holmesian. Other things now capture my fancy.

My interests and foci of attention are like so many sine waves, with peaks and troughs, some high frequency and some low. It's good my kids are grown and have lit out on their own before - out of sheer fickleness - I abandon them at some I-95 Waffle House.

Blogging grabbed my imagination for more than 3 years. I began just wanting to see if I could do it. Some things I wrote weren't too bad. I made friends, of a sort, and enjoyed their comments. But writing and blogging done well require an intellectual energy I've found difficult to sustain. I fear my posts last year were less than I would have hoped. I live in the suburbs, my insight into the human condition is mediocre, I've not done that many things worth writing about, and my sense of humor is not as good as I think. Nothing is wrong in my life. In fact, I'm busier and having more fun than ever. But by nature I'm a quiet guy and I've kind of run out of things to say.

So Plugs and Dottles joins the Trek on the peg in the garage. Like the Trek, it won't disappear. It'll be here where I can keep an eye on it, in maintenance mode, perhaps posting the occasional photo or random thought, always reminding me of the good times we've had. But also like the Trek, I'm not going to beat myself up over the fact that I'm not using it every day. I might make my blog walk, I might not. Some day, I'm sure, my blogging pulse will quicken and then it'll be Katie-bar-the-door. But I'm going in the house now. I'll be back out to play some other time.

Take care.
K-