2549

Two thousand five hundred and forty-nine posts, counting this one. The first was March 22, 2005, just over five years ago. My daughter had not yet graduated high school when I started this rag. Now she is a teacher and on the verge of getting married. My oldest boy could not yet drive, now he is of drinking age. My youngest a mere boy when I started, is now a young man at 16.

My hair is more gray, my eyesight worse. I have changed jobs and lost weight. My typing skills have not improved.

Dax proposed in a post the other day that blogging has jumped the shark. I think he is right. Facebook, Twitter and other mediums have taken our attention elsewhere. I still have 100 or so visitors every day. Thank you. Your visits and comments mean more than you could know.

I occasionally go back and read some old posts. I have written some unbelievably horrible garbage. I have written some good stuff too. I guess that is to be expected when you churn out a post every day. I think you can agree that I keep to this task pretty rigorously.

Like many of you, I consider The Acidman the greatest blogger ever. That is not meant as a slight against any of my daily reads or blogs I fail to read. Rob was able to mix politics, observations, stories and his personal life in way none of us can. He was willing to bare his naked soul to the world, at great personal cost. I wish I had the courage.

I reflect that it was the personal stories that most entertained me. When I re-read his archives I sometime skip the politics. Do you feel the same about this poor excuse of journalistic endeavor?

Over the past five years faithful readers and commenters have come and gone. Lots of bloggers disappeared or took on new identities or priorities. A small core of readers has been here from the start, or almost from the start. I remember the early days when I would get ten hits a day, six of them me checking to see if I had hits. I despaired of ever attracting readers!

Thank you for five great years. To each of you who comment, who read, who lurk -- I appreciate it. I hope I give you reason to keep stopping by each day. I fear you have heard my stories, my jokes, my opinions far too much over the past five years. If that is indeed the case, well too bad. You may read and say "WTF?", "I agree", or "who cares". I will keep trotting out the posts as long as I feel like it.

So, five years, and eight days later we continue.

I will post on whatever I care to write about. It may be political, humorous, or just boring, but you will always get my best. I may post some of my stories. I may post on historical items that interest me. It may just be crap...I hear you now. "Just who the fuck is this guy"? Well, I am a Liberally Educated Male. I am married. I have three kids. I hate mimes. I like beer. I like baseball. I hate soccer, it is not a real game.

That is all you need to know for now.

That quote is from my very first post. Not a lot has changed...