Ooooops!

            I admit – I said I was done writing.  In all honesty, it wasn’t a lie.  And it certainly wasn’t a ploy to get attention or support.  I thought my posts might be starting to get boring, so I decided to hang it up. 

            But I was amazed and genuinely surprised at the number of emails I got just after I posted what was meant to be my last post.  Evidently, I was wrong.  If readers were bored, the response was the opposite.  So I promised many that I would submit an article now and then as a compromise to hitting you over the head every week. 

            Actually writing an article is not a “full time job.” It takes very little time. I once wrote a weekly newspaper column and many times I would forget that I had an article due the next morning.  I’d come up with something off the top of my head, edit it down to 700 words, and submit the final draft for publication.

            The point is that writing an article takes very little time for me and I enjoy it.  I actually have a normal life that is not affected by jotting down some thoughts. I will say that writing for pay was less fun than writing for fun, if that makes any sense.  I don’t have an editor making sure my articles are politically correct, although my wife tries to keep me on the straight and narrow.

            Part of the satisfaction of a blog is checking the world map of readers and knowing that readership in Europe has increased, for example, and people I don’t know are reading the blog in many foreign countries.  But the fact that so many of my friends enjoy my ramblings is even more rewarding to me.

            So I will get back in the game, if only on a “now and then” basis.  Thanks to those who wrote encouragement for me to continue or disappointment in my attempt to bail out. As I said, I was serious about closing shop.  It wasn’t a trick. If you enjoy my posts, know that I enjoy writing them even more.  And many thanks to those who contacted me.

            As Arnold famously said, “I’ll be back.”