Radio Silence, and That’s OK

So it’s been almost 9 months since I posted anything here, nothing since I finished off the mandolin build last year. It’s been even longer since I posted anything on the business site, nothing since last January. The first real drought in 10 years. Hasn’t really bothered me, though I do feel I need to get something out, just so the few people that read this know I’m still around.

Back in the Saddle

Ever have a bad experience with something that turns you off of it for a really long time? For me, it was an dance with tequila in a hotel room down in New Jersey somewhere around 1983 (no, we don’t need to get into the details here…). The experience was so nasty that I couldn’t even smell the stuff without gagging for about 25 years, let’s leave it at that. I’m still pretty close to a tea-totaller, where a 12-pack of beer should last me most of the summer. I expect that most of these bad experiences centre around overdoing something, that certainly was the case with the tequila. My latest experience has to do with writing, and I think it’s high time I get back in the saddle.

One Year Gone

Well, I’ve had this blog for just over a year now. 75 posts in that year, anything from pictures of the side of my nose in France to some heavier stuff, along with some assorted nonsense. Where am I today?

Adolescence of a Book

As I might have alluded to in the past here (and certainly have talked about openly with friends and family), I have a book in me that is working it’s way out.

A Life in the Day – part 2

After a morning that was possibly the most intense and exhausting in my life (at least in a room full of total strangers), it was difficult for me even to think what was in store for me in the afternoon. There certainly was no disappointment there.

Billy Walker

Note: This post is a bit longer, and perhaps a bit more serious than the usual fare here (if there can be a usual fare after only a month). I’m heading down a path with this post that hopefully coalesce into a story with a real point or two sometime down the road…

One of my earliest friendships was with Billy Walker. He lived across the street from us, two doors down from Mrs. Mears’ store, along a highway that was far less populated than it is now, and far less travelled.

Exploring the Boundaries

As I write once in a while in this new forum (new in that it is more personal than usual, but I have been ranting on the web for almost a decade), I am coming face to face with boundaries to deal with, and decisions to be made, about where it is safe to go.

Censorship

I was sitting in the waiting area of the South Terminal of YVR a couple of hours ago, and since I had free internet access (how civilized is that?!) I thought I would knock off a blog entry. I got about a paragraph into something with the title of Peer Pressure, when I decided to just put it aside as a draft. Not a minute later, I deleted it completely.

Finding Meaning

I’ve been focused a lot more lately on trying to understand my role in this place. Like almost everyone I know, I’ve spent much of my life like a pinball, careening off this job or that, getting married, having kids. Certainly some success buried in all that, but I’m questioning how much of where and what I am has been intentional. And can there be more?

Difficult Letters

I just finished writing a letter that I will probably be sitting on for a day or two before I post it.