Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Happy Belated Anniversary

An old cold rain fell for most of the night last night. I know because one of our old dogs has been sick the last few days and she woke me up several times to go outside.
As I stood in the doorway waiting for her, the wind out of the north sprayed a cool mist on my face.
When she came back in, I headed off to bed. I had to scrunch up to Jilda to warm up. Once I wake up in the night, it takes a while for my breathing to become steady enough drift off to sleep. 
While I was in that place between wakefulness and slumber, I heard waves of wind and rain rake the tin roof.
I had an early appointment with the knee doc to have x-rays and find out what I'm up against. As I drove in to Jasper, which is about 15 miles away, I began to see tiny bits of ice and snow hit my windshield. 
I turned the intermittent wiper blades down to an occasional swish, click, so that I could make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. They weren't.
The doc told me what I expected to hear -- early arthritis in the knees but nothing to cause alarm. He gave me some options, none of which involved fly fishing and needless to say, I was disappointed.
But the last several days, I've had the feeling that I was forgetting something. I have all my friends' birthdays and other special dates programmed on my phone and I check for those daily, but that's not what I was forgetting.
Tonight as I sat trying to think of a topic, it hit me -- December 2nd was my sixth anniversary as a daily blogger. 
I started on this journey in 2005. I'd been writing almost daily since 2002 but most of those efforts were on the alumni website that I maintain.
That first day in 2005, I had no idea where I was headed with the blog. All I knew was that it was a perfect place to write.
During the early years, I only had a handful of followers -- Grandpappy, my friend Ken Owens, and Ms. AB Soup from Australia to name a few.
I had no goal, not agenda, nor could I give anyone a good reason why I spent a few hours every night writing words that few people read.
What I should have said was that I don't write for others, I write for me. This blog is almost like a journal. 
I can look back at July 25th 2007 and see that I was having problems with my cable connection and had called "Bob with the cable company to get the scoop." 
The blog is a record of what has happened in my life for the last six years -- what I was thinking, what I did, and who I saw. There are also pictures that I took along the way.
There are very few days since December 2, 2005 that I haven't written. A few times when we were out of town and had no connection to the outside world. And then in the spring of this year when tornadoes ravaged Alabama and left us without power for weeks.
I guess what I'm saying is that I think blogging is important, if it wasn't, I wouldn't have spent so much of my life energy doing it.
So, happy belated anniversary to me. May I have the strength and courage to blog for many years to come.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:05 PM

    Happy Blogaversary...and many, many more.

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  2. Happy bloganversary - 6 years daily (with slight hickups) is a LOT of writing. My goal this year was daily posting and I have but sometimes...
    -Joy

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  3. That is a notable milestone. Six years, almost daily. Well done! Please contine for a long time, yet. We all enjoy and appreciate your musings. We are just taking a moment to feel a bit sulky now we know you haven't been writing solely for our benefit. ;)
    I hope your old lady is feeling better today. It's hard to watch them decline in their last years. Also, sorry about the knee news. My husband has the same problem. It can be most frustrating, if not actually debilitating.

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  4. Anonymous10:44 PM

    Happy Anniversary! I wish many more happy moments of life to write about!

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  5. Happy Anniversary! Along with yourself, you've given a lot of us some major enjoyment in the reading of your "journal." I really enjoy it. As for your knees - just keep moving. The second you stop, your joints will rust like the Tin Man. And keep doing your lovely yoga - that's the best medicine of all.

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  6. Happy belated blogaversary :-)

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  7. Oh Happy Congrats to you and your blog. It's my writing/head space. Aren't we lucky to have this place for sharing...even just for ourselves?!

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  8. Anonymous7:54 AM

    happy aniversary, I'm a new follower of your work and must say I enjoy your writing very much, I'm sitting here right now with my husband and was just telling him about your blog.I hope the kneee is repaired to allow you to continue fly fishing , this is a passion of my husbands as well and he really would miss that too.Hope the dog feels better as well.Its snow and blowing here in Ontario , congrats again on all your years of blogging, everyday is something to be proud of,

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  9. Happy Blogoversary!!! Sorry about the knee - I hope it doesn't stop your flyfishing though!

    Take care
    x

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  10. Rick, you've done a wonderful thing when you started your blog and kept it up. We certainly appreciate your words, and look forward to many more years of Life 101.
    Hi to Jilda, and thank her for her words, also.

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  11. Six years of blogging - wow! That is something to be proud of. Congrats. Although I am a new follower, I have enjoyed reading all that you write. You are a very gifted writer and it is a joy to read words so well put together. Many of us can only dream of being so talented.

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  12. Wow! I almost miss this. Happy blogsarry Sir Rick!

    JJRod'z

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  13. Happy Anniversary Rick, may there be many more :-)

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  14. Happy Anniversary...blogging brings so many new friends and offers an outlet to those of us that find writing as much a part of who we are as our names and faces.

    Oh those aching knees. My husband's arthritis is at the point where the Dr wants to do a knee replacement on the worst one. My husband isn't willing to take the 8 wks off he was told he needed as recovery. The work climate is not conducive to letting the powers that be realize the wheel turns with or without you!

    So happy I found your blog and your lovely posts. Now I'm waiting for the next publication???!!!
    Hugs~

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  15. Congrats on six great blogging years! I remember Day One. Lots of water under the bridge since then.

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  16. Hey!!
    Still here and still reading...

    Well done - six years and such consistent writing. More than I can say about SOME people....

    Keep up the good work Rick.

    Ms Soup

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