Yes, 'Twas Yesteryear

"Dad, why do I get so hungry every time I look at Miss July?"

*I thought I'd share with you one of my childhood pictures. As you can see, I was a typical impressionable young boy. It would be several years before I learned that the pictures were mere fillers. To this day, they still fill my eyes with wonder!

Two years ago today, I first dipped my toes into what I thought would be the cold waters of the Blogosphere. When I dove in headlong I found instead a warm tropical sea, its breakers caressing the shores of an exclusive resort. I was welcomed by the friendly natives, bloggers who had also sought escape and asylum from the daily grinds of their everyday lives.

Metaphors aside, 730 days and 869 postings later, blogging has indeed provided me with both escape and asylum. It has been an outlet that has allowed me to vent, to espouse, and to pontificate from the soapbox of a keyboard.

"I didn't realize that in spite of myself, my blog in part has become an autobiography. Despite trying to write in complete anonymity, I have actually succeeded in baring my soul. Who I am, what I am, and where I am coming from can all be found in the words that have appeared on this site. At times persnickety, but always innocuous, this shell of a body harbors a clown. In another life, I might have been a court jester. In still another, there might have been a travelling minstrel. In this life? I am a man who tries to be funny, always looking for the lighter side of an otherwise overcast existence."

The above paragraph came from this post of one year ago which celebrated this blog's first anniversary. I don't think I can it say any better now than I did then.

On this, the second anniversary of my blog, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge all of the readers and commenters who have stopped by (42,840+)during those two years. Of course, it is to those who return day after day, that I am most grateful.
....So, rather than praise myself and my accomplishment of blogging for two years, instead I will praise all of you. Without your patronage, none of his would have been possible.

"In the year to come, bear with me, laugh with me, laugh at me, but above all else - laugh at yourself. I do. You know what? It works! I have confidence, you readers gave it to me, that the year to come will be rife with guffaws, giggles, grins, and best of all - smiles."

That paragraph was the closing to last year's post. It is apropos this year as well.

*This isn't really a picture of me. When I was that age, Playboy Magazine wasn't yet in existence.

No.869