the Beginning

I've tried many times before to start a blog. While I think of myself as someone very much committed to things when I start them, I also have a bad habit of being over-worked and distracted. As such it can be hard for me to follow through on some things. I'm going to attempt to make this different by giving it a time frame: I want to blog at least once a week for ten years.

Ten years might seem like a long time, but that time frame aligns with my goals: I want this place to serve as an archive of who I am at this point in my life. I want to create something that my descendants can look on and feel that they have some sense of who I am. I would also like to be able to look back on this myself, and remember events, feelings, where I was, and maybe maintain the sense of where I'm going. 

There is an advertisement this year on TV I hate. In this ad a man going through life recaptures his youth by purchasing a sports car akin to the one he had as a teenager. As he drives around winding roads with coastal views, the narrator says, “Something new reminds you of when you were you,”

What? I don't want to lose who I am. That is terrifying to me. And also, I would like to think that I'm not going anywhere. I'll evolve -- maybe -- but I'll be the same goof-ball I've always been (I hope.) My firm belief is that new experiences don't erase us: they are just new. New isn't bad. It is different. Different can be good. Maybe I'm over thinking a thirty second car commercial?

So there are 52 weeks in a year. My count has that at 468 posts over 9 years, plus the posts for the last three months of this year. That comes out to about 480 posts. I imagine that the number will be somewhat different in the final assessment, but still, it is a goal to strive for.

As of my writing this, my wife is about 20 weeks pregnant. At our last doctor's appointment we were able to see the spine, organs, and profile of our baby-to-be. We didn't want to be surprised by the gender, and so we learned that we are to have a little girl. I found myself overwhelmed at the detail in the spine, her face and hands. I find myself overwhelmed with all the cliché things you think as a parent.

I'm hoping to find a good balance of talking about endurance sport while covering the details of the emerging chapter. At times it may be more one than the other, and I'm not sure if this will make this blog more or less relevant, but I'm going to give it a shot, anyway. We'll see what happens.