40 Days

So, yes, I've given up blogging for Lent this year. 

My wife was fairly flabbergasted. And incredulous. She's not a fan of the blogging, but she's learned (somewhat) to live with my need for a creative outlet. And it beats having me doing nightly theater rehearsals 4-5 days a week (last tried that, oh, around 2002 or or 2003).

But Lent is a time of preparation and sacrifice and giving up those things that are hard to give up because, you know, in the end, we don't really need them. I mean...well, you probably know what I mean.

The last few years it's been booze and/or meat and/or caffeine (sometimes all three)...stuff I learned a long time ago I could live without, despite enjoying the hell out of them. I used to love smoking, too (still miss that sometimes) and I haven't inhaled anything but air in more than 20 years. 

Blogging, on the other hand, is a bit more insidious. The amount of time I spend making the rounds of the many, many blogs that interest me is enormous...morning hours on the laptop, checking my phone for new posts, reading comments, managing my own posts and comments, doing research for some topic or other, most any time of the day. Some days/weeks it feels almost like a part-time job...and I'm not a professional blogger. I just enjoy the hell out of it...and the connection to all the other bloggers, readers, writers, and thinkers that populate Ye Old Inter-Webs.

So, yeah. I've given it up this year. 'Cause it's a little harder than the other stuff. It's only 40 days after all.

Which brings me to the reason for this (very short) post. The Roman Catholic version of Lent doesn't recognize Sundays as actually being part of Lent's forty days...they are traditional feast days and it's a bit of a grey area as to whether one is allowed a weekly "cheat day" or not. Generally, I don't (cheat, that is)...however, due to some issues with my airplane Tuesday night, I was unable to get this explanatory post up, prior to Ash Wednesday. As such, I'm "cheating" tonight to write this...though I did abstain from having a beer with my dinner this evening.

; )

But now I'm out. I'll get back to y'all after Good Friday. Till then, you shouldn't be seeing me around this (or any other) blog. As I said in my last post, you can still get ahold of me via email if necessary. 

Peace, my friends. Peace be with all of you.