I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter

Why keep a blog?

For myself, I have always kept journals. I had a diary when I was 9 and used it till I was 15. At 1978 I started again in a spiral notebook, because it was cheap, to document what was important to me about my days. In '88 they all burned up in the fire. That hurt badly. I didn't write for a long time after that.

In '92, on my 8088 I started again to write about my days. Using the now defunct B drive disks I kept a journal. I have '94 and '95 on the hard drive but in '96 when we got the house I was too busy to keep it up and let it go again.

Pretty much this blog is just my diary. What I did where I went with whom and if it was fun or not. My poems, songs, stories were all in the diary of the day. I find I put less of that here but it stll shows up from time to time.

And this is my other thought. The only thing I can contribute to the world is something that is original with me. My thoughts, feelings, ways of dealing with life that I have developed are never completely duplicated anyplace else. If they help just one person avoid a pit trap I fell into then it is worth the time, embarassment and labor of putting it out here.

If I make one person smile each day then I did something to create more good feelings than bad in the world. If I make you question yourself and think about something until you know where you stand on it then I helped out a friend and feel good about that.

But even if this blog does nothing except give me a place to vent at least I won't blow up from stuffing it all down inside till I pop all over some innocent person. That's good, too.

Mostly I write to see myself produce something that only I can do my way. I like to read me, too. Is that vain? I hate each typo but leave them usually because I know you will get the thought anyway. I hate when I think of better phrasing or another example that might have gotten my point across better. But I leave it alone because it's good enough to get by without wreaking the story.

Now I will be adding that I blog so my people can keep up with what's happening around here without being in touch any better than we usually are. But if I only see you four times a year or once every four years you will know how life has been and that I am thinking of you all. I think it will bring us closer at least in our heads. That's a warm fuzzy thought for me.