The End Is Near

The ninth anniversary of this blog will be on the 29th, and it has been a joy ... a pain ... an occasional drudgery ... and a joy again.

I've "met" many, many friends, including a few face-to-face. Some of those have stopped blogging, since. I'm pretty sure it's not my fault. :)  However, it has become a struggle to find things to write about, and it often feels as though I'm repeating myself.

Rather than drag this out, it seems 'twould be easier to simply pull the plug. No heroic measures, and all that.

I will continue to post, from time to time, when/if things of interest come up. It's nice to have the platform, and I love hearing from all y'all. And of course I'll still be lurking around the 'net, reading blogs and commenting here and there.

But times goes by, and everything changes. This is one of those things.

In the words of the old Scottish blessing,

May the blessing of light be on you - light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.
And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,
like a candle set in the window of a house,
bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.
And may the blessing of the rain be on you,
may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.
And may the blessing of the earth be on you,
soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,
soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day;
and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.
May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be out from under it quickly; up and off and on its way to God.
And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly. Amen.

49 in Dog Years: a Blogiversary

For what it's worth, I just realized that I carved out this niche seven years ago. A few epic rants, some middlin' preaching, and a lot of nonsense later, it still sputters along.

I'm grateful for you that have come along for parts of the ride, and for the on-line friends who've come my way.

A couple of folks (Brigid and joated) have been here almost since the beginning. In fact, joated was the first person to comment on a post I'd written, and linked to it from his blog. The rest flows from that link.

Fewer still are those with whom I've had the pleasure to meet in real life: one or two very well-known, and three who were Alaska-based bloggers, although two have moved away, and we're the poorer for it.


The rest, as they say, is history. Whether it's a distinguished history is up to you to decide. For my part, I'll keep chipping away at the writer's block, and we'll see where things go.


I mentioned the bloggers whom I've met, few in number primarily because of my remote base of operations. I know the midwestern/Indiana-centric crowd sees a lot of each other, as do folks in the mid-south and along the east coast. Not so much, up here.

But in that vein, I will have the very good fortune to meet with one next month in Hawaii, unless his plans change, and it's my understanding that another will visit us here, later this year.

I'm NOT name-dropping; just quite happy to be able to finally met folks with whom I've corresponded for months or years.

But most importantly, I want to thank you, Gentle Readers, for your daily presence in this little corner of the 'net. I'd have given it up long ago if not for your comments, e-mails, and support.

Thank you, my friends.

Friends Old and New, with Coffee on the Side

We made it all the way to 48 degrees this afternoon, with another day of sunshine. Since the forecast yesterday and today was for rain, the two sunny days have been extra-enjoyable. To be fair, I drove to work in a rain/snow mix this morning before 7:00, when the temp was 37, but that ended by sunrise.

The snow has come marching back down the mountainsides again, due to the early rains. It seems that winter is trying to arrive a bit more quickly than usual; this elicits a chorus of both cheers and groans, locally. I still haven't figured out why people who don't like snow stick around the place; this being Alaska, snow is ... inevitable.

I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Peter, Miss D, and Jenny for lunch. It was a delightful chat; Peter and I, being Navy veterans - no matter that it was not the same Navy - had somewhat in common, and swapped a few tales of ... well, let's say "maritime mischief" and leave it at that, 'kay?

The skies are clouding up, this afternoon, and I'm sure there's some sort of precipitation in our future. Since AccuHunch guesses we'll get into the mid-30s again tonight - and colder, later in the week - what we actually receive is anyone's guess.

Small World & Other Things

There are lots of people in Alaska who blog, but they are notoriously, shall we say, publicity-shy. I've only met one (UpinAK, a prolific conservative political observer), although I've traded on-line comments with some, and e-mailed a few others.

I had the good fortune of meeting one in the latter two groups yesterday. Jenny is a charming Celtic lady (there's something about those red-headed bloggers) who posts the most fascinating stuff ... go on over to A Call To Wings and give it a look. You'll be glad you did.

* * * * *

It's solidly overcast & raining this morning. That prevented us from seeing the oh-no-we're-gonna-die auroral display predicted to occur because of the sun's coronal mass ejection. But the alarm clock went off as expected, and the lights worked. Cable news was still on, and no one mentioned this "OMG if we didn't have a magnetic field we'd all be DEAD DEAD DEAD" non-event.

Kindly restrain your panic and go about your regular, everyday lives. Nothing to see here; move along.

* * * * *

I noted that gas prices leapt to to $3.43/gallon this morning. Readers to the south (Vancouver and beyond) may be way too hot, but at least your gas isn't sky high.

* * * * *

When you stop at a coffee kiosk on the way to work, that typically implies you're on a schedule. Verily, it doth therefore puzzle me why the barista thinks customers need an explanation of the long face & grim expression she is displaying for all the world to see.

Must be a liberal, sharing the misery equally. I'll get my coffee elsewhere from now on.