I have always hated the title of this blog

It is Monday, a new week. A dusting of snow lies on the ground. Cold air leaks in the office window as I type on the ancient laptop keyboard. I stare at the cursor and realize yet again I have nothing to offer here at the old blog. I could talk about last night's dinner (I made lasagna). I could grumble about work. I could toss up a righteous rant about the Astrix and Kaaaamela; reminding you that you are about to get a dose of what you voted for good and hard. I could whine about the Cubs or bore you to tears with photos or music or old jokes. In other words, the same stale content. 

I just don't have it in me any more. I am just short of sixteen years of posting nearly every day. I have written almost 7,000 posts*. To what purpose?  

I first started blogging because I worked in an office by myself. My company was in Italy and I had little contact with the outside world unless I was on the road. I was in a bad place and needed to vent. I spent much of the time writing this blog as a travelling salesman. Life on the road is a solitary existence, despite your preconceptions. Hours in the car, sitting in airports, dining alone, staring at a hotel TV. A few hours with customers. But I saw stuff and experienced stuff that occasionally made for good blog fodder. 

That life is behind me for now. Someday soon I hope to get back to what I love and am good at. I remain optimistic.  Maybe then I will have some new stories.

I seems to me content is a shell of what it once was**. I am bored by it, you have to be. 

I am taking a break. It might be for a day, it might be a month. It might be forever. I just don't know. I will still read your blogs. I will still read your comments. I just will not be writing here for now. It will be no great loss. I suspect the Google Overlords are going to shut it down for insurrectionist content in the coming crackdown anyhow. No, despite my penchant for sarcasm, that was not written tongue in cheek. 

So long for now and I thank you for you patronage. The fact that you read here at all is humbling. I lack the vocabulary to express how much it means to me to know you bothered to stop by, whether it was once or 6,961 times. 

Who knows, perhaps the new administration will tick me off so much I cannot resist the temptation to comment. Maybe I will run across a joke so funny that I will just have to share. Maybe life will toss me a fast ball thigh high I can hit out of the park instead of yet another curve. You will be the first to know. Or not. I think time away is what is needed most.

Thanks for everything, mon amis.

*6,961, but who is counting?

** I make no claim that it was ever good on a regular basis. But I think I did throw up a few good entries overt the years -- you know monkeys, typewriters, etc.