Dang! Has it REALLY been a year-and-a-half since I've left a posting? Umm, yeah.
There's reasons. There are always reasons. It's the GOOD ones that are harder to come by.
Yeah, the '04 election was more than a bit demoralizing. It'd be even more demoralizing if I thought it was an honest result. Uh, wait, maybe the other way around. Um, let me think on this a bit.
Actually, the biggest contributor to my long silence has been my declining health. Given my heart condition, and then pneumonia, that pretty well knocked the props out from under me for quite a while. In terms of strength, I went from working on the treadmill and doing some weight training three times a week to doing them... um... never. Literally no strength available. I've had all sorts of surgical procedures (lungs scrubbed, anyone?), diagnostic procedures (if you turn out the lights I might just glow a soft green), all of which only helped modestly if at all, and as I went through this all, leaving me with no enthuseasm to do anything.
So, the past few years have had no stories, no blog posts, and darn little of anything else.
Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa.
About ten days ago I had another round of surgery, this one to implant a defibrillator/pacemaker into my chest. It seems to have gone well. Everything, (I keep being told) is healing nicely. Best of all, though I had been warned to not expect this, I've got a lot more energy to do things, and the motivation to make use of said energy. I s'pose it could be psychosomatic, but if it is I'll take it. It's really nice having the taste to do things again.
Beyond this post, I'm working on a petty-much-total redesign of my web site. There'll be a few new features, if anyone cares. Instead of being primarily for my readers and fasns, this version will be primarily for me. There'll still be my stories and etc, my blog will be linked in, there will be a guestbook (this time for sure!), and the links are ones I use on a quite frequent basis. The reader will be welcome to use them too, but that's not their main reason. (Hey! Look how erudite I am! Lookit alla da classy links!) They'll be there to make it easier for me to organize and use my favorites.
The 'journal' is gone forever. I'll be blogging as the whim takes me, and it'll be about whatever I'm in the mood to vent upon. I'd suspect politics are going to be a part of this, as will selected events in my life, the occasional rant, and whatever few observations I may have worth sharing.
I really don't need to worry about censoring the comments. I'm living off social security disability, and as I understand it that's not likely to change. So no boss to be looking over my shoulder for me to be telling tales out of school. Of course, there are my partners in PP&F NetWorks (Bill and Piper) who aren't necessarily happy with this philosophy, but I don't report to them, just as they don't report to me, and besides I've never actually made a nickel off the company. It's doing well, well enough to be self-sustaining, but not so well that it's providing me with the lap (or any other body parts) of luxury.
Just for the record, what I blog here is my personal opinion, and doesn't represent the views of my partners nor of PP&F NetWorks, LLC. They do represent my personal opinions, though, and despite the fact that I have no desire nor intent to defame nor libel anyone, my comments might be a bit harsh. (Darn! I miss having a moustache to twirl.)
Just remember to apply the administrations mantra. If you like what I'm doing, I dood it all myself and the credit and glory goes all to me. Iff'n you hate it, well there were many hands contributing, mistakes were made, and IT'S NOT MY FAULT!
