When I started writing this, I was trying to contain my impatience at the slow pace of our lives…
(January 11, 2004 4:00am) The pace of our lives seems to have slowed slightly and I think it’s mainly because of the weather. Our roof repair project showed little signs of motion. My workshop, a favorite daytime environment, was dismally cold even with heaters going. The weather has been cold, 20 or below for three days, with three inches of snow on the ground.
I went outside to feed the deer and do a few minor chores, but the cold drove me in after a short time. The cats won’t go outside at all and follow us around constantly, looking expectantly at us to entertain them.
I am thankful for the internet and cell phones. I was able to exchange emails and phone calls with internet friends and family all day long, while paying bills and handling other chores which I had put off as long as I could. I was finally able to develop some sales graphs for a client and drove twenty miles in the cold to deliver them.
I also took time to read some weblogs I have not visited recently. I noticed that other bloggers have commented on the increasing number of hits they are getting from search engines like Google and Yahoo. I have the feeling that blogging is not only getting mainstream attention, it is slowly transforming life as I know it.
Blogging is a publishing phenomenon now, with little promise of economic return at present. However, there is a datum that money is the attention unit of society (I don’t remember the original source) and I can verify that it appears to be true. Those things that attract attention, attract money. People will eventually figure out a way to harness reader interest in fresh and original content to generate a flow of money.
Meanwhile, blogging keeps us occupied and gives us a chance to educate ourselves anew. We are presented with mind-expanding vistas of information and opinion on every hand. A never-empty cornucopia of data is at our fingertips…as long as the power stays on. (The power started flickering here.)
As a blogger, every day provides a chance to distance myself from the things I am immersed in and lets me summarize the important or humorous aspects of the days happenings. I usually find that the exercise of writing causes a subtle shift in my attitudes, usually for the better.
As I wrote the previous line, our power went out and knocked us off the internet for two days.
Talk about sensory deprivation! No blogging, no email, nothing! Aarghhh….