Blogging These Days

Nothing like a two week hike to change perspective. Being on the trail the past few weeks took me away from events and affairs completely. Back now, I am less inclined to spend a lot of time writing or reading blogs. My main interests are getting packed and organized to move to Olympia, writing an account of the hike and taking care of personal business. Writing yet again about how CheneyBush is endangering America and the world with his pig-headed foolishness just doesn't seem to be the best use of my time right now. Nor does reading about it. My interest in society and the world is no less; I'll keep up with the news and favorite blogs. It's just that I can use a break.

Less blogging probably won't affect my traffic. My average daily traffic is down about 25% (that would be four or five hits) from my peak months. Overall, I seem to get not much less traffic when I don't actively blog. I don't get many comments but the ones that do come in are always appreciated. What all this tells me is that I can keep this blog going indefinitely in some form with minimal effort. I'll probably do more than the minimum, but don't expect great outpourings of text and thought in the immediate future. At a minimum, this blog has been an opportunity to think and reflect. I now have a thick notebook of essays that records my thinking during a critical period. I want to review that record and see what emerges that may inform my future thought and life. I have plenty to keep me thinking and writing.

Another major occupation these days is Prince, the Dalmatian who is still on his last legs. Those legs have been surprisingly long lasting but he is slowly declining, becoming more feeble. So far Maggie and I are able to care for him but we are both wondering for how much longer. While I was hiking, Maggie says she spent much of her time attending Prince in some way. Never a good thing when you are self-employed. With two of us, it's a bit easier. Prince is almost 15. He looks pretty good, is lively and interested in the world (especially food) and still shows bursts of energy but his back end is very unstable. Walking is difficult and slow.

Writing my account of the PCT hike has been as much fun as the hike itself. Maybe more, since it's not nearly as physically challenging. I am in the "dump stage" of writing where all I do is record events, thoughts, people and places from the hike in a daily log. I'll sort out the results when I'm done and maybe something will show up in a future post. In the meantime, it's fun to see where the story takes me and how the hike looks in retrospect with feet that are much, but not completely, healed

Manuscript News: A publisher requested a copy of my Appalachian Trail manuscript, Rez Dog Walking, in response to a query letter and sample pages I submitted. I mailed a hard copy manuscript, the first include text and drawings, early last week. A second publisher responded that my work did not fit their catalogue (it was a long-shot, anyway). I'm far from published but I was pleased to get such a positive response first off.

Happy Labor Day, All.