jim henson

If life and our situations always stayed the same, it just wouldn't be life, now would it?
The only constant is change, and so on.

If you'll pardon a pause in the usual parade of whatnot, the time has come for me to share some personal changes in my life that will likely affect the future of my blog, certainly in the short term.

My wife and I are splitting up, and today's the day that I packed up a carload of stuff and began the process of moving out of the house, and out of Boise.

I'm OK. It's just a strange time. One that's been brewing for a long while.

As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in a motel room in Winnemucca, Nevada, a universal half-way point.

I'm headed back to the San Francisco bay area, where I'm from, and the plan is to try and swing moving back there permanently.

I took the photo below ▼ this afternoon. It's the view from the south end of McDermitt, Nevada.
Heading south, McDermitt is the very first thing you bump into when you drive across the border from Oregon into Nevada on U.S. Route 95.

Please note the former gas station canopy that currently shelters stacked hay bales.
(click on image to ENLARGE, if you are so moved)

So what does my news mean for you?

During all of the upcoming transitions, I frankly don't know what exactly will be happening with
'I'm Learning To Share'.

I'm confident it will continue, it's just too much fun for me.

At risk is the flow of new content, and its flavor and consistency while I'm in the middle of changes.

I'll be scouting a new place to live, and going through a lengthy process of packing and moving and storing and unpacking and all that big fun. Oh, and starting a new life...

I'm hoping that my regular blog visitors will bear with me while the effects of my being deprived my normal access to my own collections and archives - - the ones that have fueled so many of my posts - - are felt.

- - An aside: In contemplating this eventuality I kept flashing on an old image that had been buried in my brain for an embarrasingly long time;

It's one I hunted down and found in one of the many issues of Heavy Metal that I've been holding onto for an equally embarrasingly long time.

In a story from the December, 1981 issue, comics creator Caza ▶ tells one of his surreal 'Suburban Scenes' stories in which he
re-imagines his apartment building as a pirate ship, with himself as captain.

The one panel in question shows a pirate maid with a captive teenage boy, and part of the text reads - -
"Some of these middle-class kids turn out to be good recruits! (But) Most of them don't last for more than a night... Without his collection of records, he's a goner!"

- - And of course, ever since I was the
middle-class teenage boy laughing in recognition as I read that, I've sympathized.

I'm also hoping that any new blog visitors won't be put off if current events compel me to make my own day-to-day experiences more of a component of what I might write about.

For me, being able to write more freely about myself (without having to label it as 'vanity'), and also accept that someone could possibly be interested is a type of Sharing I'm still Learning.

By the way, it was my wife who encouraged me to do just that, long ago.
So, coming to a place in my life where I am enjoying the discipline of writing something most every day is something I have to thank her for.

- - And so for the record, not to bore you with my personal life, so far my wife and I have been able to keep this split amicable. Fingers crossed.

We've been friends about sixteen years, a couple for seven, married for four.
Our hope is that we're breaking up to preserve our friendship.

Still, it's a very strange time.

But enough about me.

To be continued - - ?