Over the past 2 ½ years, I’ve given glimpses of my life to you. Probably the one thing that I’ve made most clear is that I am married o a woman I passionately love, and that I want to have as the center of my life for the rest of my life. You would also be aware that there are health issues in her life that are a source of great concern.

And for that reason, some changes are coming.

I plan on blogging a bit less – and I want to explain why.

IÂ’m up before sunup every morning, out the door by before dawn, and donÂ’t return home until for another 9-10 hours. I teach a night class that takes me out of my home several nights a week. That means my evenings with my wife are at a premium, especially since my return time is late enough that she will be asleep or ready for bed when I get home after class and so there is not any significant time to spend with her then.

And I look at how I have spent those evenings lately – including a bonus one last night, when torrential rains and flooding in the Houston area caused the cancellation of my night class – and I’m not happy.

I’ve spent them making replies to the Holocaust denying neo-Nazi troll who just won’t leave, despite my best efforts to rid my site of his filth. I’ve done the same with the filth-spewing “liberal” who can’t string three words together without one being a profane insult. I’ve made posts on my site and commented on others – and last night found myself doing battle with a thief who stole a photo off my site, among other things….

And then IÂ’ve spent what time is left with the woman that I love.

IÂ’ve been struggling with this issue for several days now, and driving in to school this morning, I found myself asking a basic question.

“What is your priority and why?”

And in one of those brutal epiphanies that are a part of life, I recognized that the answer I wanted to give wasnÂ’t well-reflected in my actions.

After all, this blog is simply not that important, but IÂ’ve let it become a driving force in my life to an extent that has ceased to be healthy. And IÂ’ve let it begin to take the place of what matters most in my life, allowing this hobby to become too time-consuming and too important.

And so I will be cutting back. I have to, for the sake of my own sanity and the happiness of the person I still want to spend the rest of my life with.

That will mean probably only one or two posts a day, and possibly days without any posts at all. It will mean putting the focus on the part of my life that really needs to be the priority – my wife, especially while she still enough has enough good days to balance out the bad ones that have slowly come to be more frequent over the last few months. I want to take those walks and long drives. I want to go shopping with her. I want to go out for a movie or dinner or take a romantic weekend away. And maybe I’d rather not have thoughts about possible posts, how to respond to commenters, and site traffic levels crowding out my attention to her when she needs it most.

In short, I need blogging to be less of a jealous and demanding mistress and more of a recreational diversion.

I hope folks will still come around. I hope people will still comment (well, maybe not KKKen or Nunya, but decent people), and maybe even link back to something that you like. But if the changes don’t meet with your approval, please know that I have appreciated your visits and wish you well – and hope you will still pop in from time to time.

And sweetheart, if you are reading this, know that IÂ’m sorry for too many evenings and weekends when IÂ’ve failed to give you your due. I know I canÂ’t make them up, but I can strive to do better.

Posted by: Greg at 05:44 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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