THIS BLOG IS ONE YEAR OLD! AMAZING, IMPOSSIBLE, YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME

HAHAHAHAHAHA, I bet you didn’t think I’d be here a year, from when I started this blog. I am though! Beginning Last April, I was quarantined in our house by ol’ Bubbaloo, Ange, Ron, JMW, and D2. Basically they ganged up on me and overwhelmed my resistance to “state” mandated control. They wouldn’t have beaten me down in my prime, but here in my looming senility, I was no match for their combined efforts. I allowed them to imprison my body, but they couldn’t cage my mind. Hell, even I have no idea of where my mind is going, from minute to minute. It was like trying to cage an insane dervish. Thus my blog was born, as a means to allow my mind to travel to places where my body was forbidden to go.

The original idea was to attempt to write down some thoughts of my life, before everything is deleted from my memory card. I did not even know if I could set up a blog, let alone write something, that anyone would read. Geezus, I didn’t even know what a “blog” was! Bubbaloo humoured me, hoping I would find something to do, other than irritate her, incessantly. Ange said, “hell yes dad you can do it!” Condescending? Maybe! The final push came when Ron decided to call my bluff and buy me a course on Website development. I donned my school clothes. Well ok, Bubbaloo dressed me in my new clothes and off to school I went. I cannot remember being so excited, since the time, “when the pigs ate my little sister”. Just kidding, don’t get all upset.

School taxed my old brain severely, but I persevered and graduated. I had learned how to create a “blog” and what you see in front of you is the result. From that starting point, I have created 279 drops of genius, which detail some of our life as travellers. During my confinement, I was allowed outside, only to do battle with the “Amazon Jungle”, that lives in our yard. Bubbaloo decided that the risk of my catching the dreaded disease from a tree was well worth the opportunity for exercise. This lasted 4 months. I began writing like a man obsessed. Finally, I was released from improisonment. I could, now, go out for limited periods. Not to go golfing or fishing, but I was allowed to go shopping, and for cardio walks with ol’ Bubbaloo. My summer passed like this.

At this point in time, 250,000 pearls of memory have been put on paper. Bubbaloo has read each and every one of them. She has, for the most part, been supportive of my writing. I have only felt her wrath a few times, where I wrote, something that I might have been better off, forgetting. Ange has been a great help. She is brimming with praise, filled with constructive criticism. Sometimes she states the obvious, with things like, “Dad you are really long winded”, “Maybe you need some help with punctuation”, or “How about a few paragraph breaks, so I’m not faced with a wall of text, each time I open your Blog”. I try to be welcoming of her criticism, but invariably, I am thrown into a sulk. Ron, is mostly a silent reader, but I can feel her, “you are so full of shit” attitude.

D2, JMW, A and T are faithful readers. D2 and JMW have heard me tell many of my stories, during times when they could not get away from me. I think they are happy to read of my exploits, rather than being cornered and “force fed” them. Readers, like A and T are loyal, and who knows what motivates them to read my drivel. I know some of you would like to tell them, “Geezus, get a life, will ya”. In the course of writing my blog, nearly 600 people have visited it from time to time. These visits resulted in nearly 8000 views of individual articles. One thousand times, someone has “liked” an article or comment. I find this amazing! I am also sure that many of my readers, use my writing, as a sure cure for insomnia. There are also many other, loyal readers, mostly from Bubbaloo’s family.

It is now April 2021, and I am celebrating ONE YEAR of retrieving memories and stories from my fading mind. Once in a while, I have exploded into a “rant” or tantrum, when something upsets my usual calm demeanour. I have also quit writing for brief periods, especially when Ange or Bubbaloo are critical of what I produce. My skin is not so thick as many of you think. I also can be sent into fits of crying, pouting and sulking, when my literary skills are questioned. The next year will see me continue my efforts at dredging up memories of the past. It’s getting harder now as the girls get older (in the stories) and remember much of what I am writing about. It is more difficult to be creative with the truth. I am “called out” more often.

However, I will persevere and continue prying out memories and writing them down as I see them. Please enjoy what you can, ignore what you can’t, agree or disagree with my opinion pieces and help an old man dream his way through the later years. We will, hopefully speak again in another year. That is, if I don’t have a major fit and quit writing, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JIMBO RED! ALWAYS REMEMBER, THAT “A SLIPPING CLUTCH” IS A BEAUTIFUL THING! Thank you one and all.