"There are FIVE chairs in this hotel room"

Greetings and salutations to whoever’s left out here.

My frequent and long-term absences from this blog have taken a toll on the comments and readership, as evidenced in the lack of comments of late. If I had my way, these things would never happen, but, like everybody else these days, I’ve been pulled in multiple directions in this recent life, unable to focus enough to give this place the quality of writing that it deserved.

So I backed off.

In the meantime, a lot has happened, not necessarily to me, but to other members of our little blogging community. Several of us have lost parents and other loved ones, and others have gotten new jobs or increased responsibilities on our existing jobs. Some of us have suffered from writers’ block, while others have never been so prolific. Kids are born; stuff goes out of business or changes beyond recognition. Such is life.

As for me, I recently celebrated (if you can call it that) my one-year service anniversary with the city and two successful tax seasons with Big Green. One of these things may or may not be a part of my life this time next year. I’ll let you know, preferably off-site, as the biggest drawback of being so open and public with my identity is that anybody and everybody can read this stuff.

Something tells me that if I had it to do again, I’d select a snazzy pseudonym and conduct this operation undercover. Then again, when I started this thing, I never expected to develop a fan base (HA!) or a public life. I also never expected to live out my life’s dramas behind a keyboard. Oh well. I guess I never took ‘Diary 101’ back in the day.

I’ve been doing the retail thing as of late as well, as if anyone is surprised. In the past few weeks, I’ve visited new store prototypes from The Home Depot, Brooks Brothers, Sur la Table and Belk, as well as an antique mall that is located in an almost well-preserved former Kmart that thankfully never made it to the badly-altered Big Kmart phase.

I also saw “Knocked Up” at the movies. Seth Rogen found a way to make what would seem to be a totally undesirable character into a sweet, smart and unquestionably funny lead. He’s only a small part of what makes this Judd Aptow vehicle a smash hit. You just have to see how many gags and references can be effectively crammed into one movie.

Geez, what else have I done? A lot, I guess, but writing it is harder that it seems.