Why I haven’t been blogging?

I looked at the stats for my blog today and was amazed that there had been 40 visits –I know this time none of them were me going back to look at something or to get a reference for a new post so either 1 determined soul came back 40 times (which I doubt) or 40 people came one time (which I equally doubt) so it is likely somewhere in between.

In any case I thought I’d give you my top ten excus …. OOPS I mean reasons for not having been on the blogs this week.

10. Last weekend was the family reunion for the early celebration of my Dad’s 90th Birthday (but that only lasted until Sunday so that’s not really it)

9. Linda is away in Vancouver visiting Kevin & Sarah and helping watch Will while they work (True but anyone who knows even the slightest thing about us would expect that to mean more blogging not less)

8. Monday was my birthday so I decided to take the week off and just “veg out” doing only the bare minimum needed to get my teaching and household commitments. (Oh how I wish that was true!!)

7. I needed to get the “BBB” winterized and that took so much time I didn’t have anytime left for other things. It is true that I spent several hours Tuesday afternoon removing anything that might freeze and blowing out/putting antifreeze in the water lines – but thanks to my friend Russ Ward that really only took about 2 hours. I did spent another hour or so visiting with him and talking about some “church” questions that he had.

6. I had too many people to visit and talk to about things that needed to be addressed in my “elder” role at the church. Well I did spend an hour visiting Mary Seabrook in hospital. She had fallen with a broken hip last week and had surgery. At age 94, she is struggling in the recovery – and needs our prayers. But that’s hardly a reason for not having time on the blog.

5. Our preacher left and I have a whole bunch of things that I need to do because of that (Rog – if you see this – you will be happy to know that everything that goes wrong is still your fault). Well I do have a sermon and a class to prepare for but they are still waiting to be done so hardly can be used as an excuse for not doing something else.

4. Linda is away and I have had to take care of many household things that she normally does. Well –there’s several problems with this excuse – one there’s only me (and Alyssa) so there’s not that much to do. Two, Linda left lots of precooked meals so cooking isn’t an issue, three, I (at least sometimes) do the cleanup part anyhow, and four, it doesn’t take much time to stuff some bedding and towels into the machine and then go back later to move them to the dryer --Oh yeah –I’m supposed to fold them and put them away –maybe I’ll get to that later.

3. I got behind in my class stuff last week when working on PPT for Dad’s party and I have assignments to grade as well as class preps to do. Oh – but Tuesday class was suspended (Founder’s day) and I only had a small amount of prep for Thursday. And the assignments are still waiting …

2. I have some work to do to respond to a request to help develop a ”statistical process control” course for engineers that requires a fair bit of time. But wait – I didn’t do anything on it either.

So the number one top reason (and probably the only valid one) is that I got “addicted” to the Berean Spirit list. I had not been on it for almost a week and a half and I felt compelled to “catch up” – and not only that I kept putting in my “2 cents” on too many topics.

I know I can’t keep it up because there are too many other things that I need to be doing. Isn’t it interesting that the very things that help us be “successful” in life can also be our biggest enemies. In my case it is a combination of when I do something I want to dive in whole heartedly and participate to the max and (as I have mentioned before) my buffet style approach to just heaping it on because I always think I can handle more than is really possible.

This can be good or it can be bad – It really depends on which things I decide to leave on the plate (or discard) or whether I try to handle it all to the point it makes me “ill”.

May God give me the strength and wisdom to say No and keep my plate filled on to the point that I need for nourishment rather than this unhealthy striving to always do more – which often ends up with many things (important things left undone or done poorly)

My friend John Dobbs who is also on the list told me I should “pick my battles” -- and that is good advice. I will heed it … tomorrow!!!

To give you a hint of how badly I lost the battle here are some excerpts from some of my 38 entries to that list between October 10 and noon on October 13.

Friday 1:39 p.m. “I don't have a lot time to pursue this now so I'll try this "small" clarification/question”

Friday 12:16 a.m. “And I've got no spare time -- I guess I'll have to take a sabbatical from the list for a few days - Do you think it will survive without me? :) :)”

Thursday 10:31 p.m. “Well I'm back into this again.”

Thursday 11:22 a.m. “Aaaagh! I know I know I promised -- maybe this time I'll mean it and keep it.”

Thursday 11:14 a.m. “My OCD has me needing to go through the entire list after a week away” ..
Thursday 10:47 a.m “ Now back to my promise not to discuss this anymore unless I see something new that I haven't seen before”

Thursday 10:29 a.m. “I'm ranting -- but I can't help it”

Thursday 10:02 a.m “I'm sorry -I can't help myself -- I think I need some addiction counselling!!!”

Thursday 9:41 a.m “Enough said about … (at least for me)

Thursday 9:02 a.m. “p.p.s This is my absolute last word on this -- I promise (he said with his fingers crossed!!)

Thursday 8:34 a.m. “because I've devoted a lot of time in the past couple of days …reading what you good folk have been discussing on this list --I need to get off this list and move on (the other things in my life)”

Wednesday 9:33 p.m. “I'm a little late with this response -- I've been gradually tracking this thread back to where I last left it and I have been hesitant to comment before I got to the end but …”


To my family & friends - I hope to have "recovered" sufficiently to do a post about the "big party" last weekend sometime next week. Art has already sent me a bunch of pictures.

To Wilma_ I know I still owe you an answer about accessing the list.

To JD, Bobby, Dee and any of my other blogging friend who may have dropped by my biggest failure is not so much that I wasn’t putting anything on my blog but I also wasn’t coming by to “get nourished” by yours.

I think I need to find a chapter of BLA (bloggers and listers anonymous) and beat this thing before it starts to ruin my life. Well I don’t think I’m really that bad –after all I can quit this any time I want to … I just don’t want to yet – :0 :)

All kidding aside I think there is some truth to the possibility of becoming addicted to this form of communication and discussion and while I’m not there – and I don’t think I ever will get there – the “close encounters of the worst kind” have given me at least a sense of the battle faced by those who are addicted to much more damaging and hurtful things.

You’ll know I’ve really lost it when I start my blog with “Hello my name is Charlie and I’m a blogaholic” ….

God Bless
Charlie