Ramble On, 18 Years and Counting!

 

by Pa Rock

Steadfast Typist

If Pa Rock's Ramble was human, it would be old enough to vote today.  It was on the evening of November 4th, 2007, that I sat down at the computer in my cozy apartment in Goodyear, Arizona (at the corner of McDowell Avenue and Litchfield Road), and challenged myself to learn how to blog.   The effort that night produced a political endorsement entitled "Obama '08."

That was back in the Bush era, the country was still under the malignant thumbs of W. and Cheney (Doofus and Darth), and we were a couple of months shy of the first primaries in the 2008 election cycle.  At the time I wrote that blog posting, the leading contender for the Democratic nomination was Hillary Clinton, but the times were quickly changing and one year to the day later - November 4th, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of the United States - and happy days were here again!

Former Vice President Dick Cheney (Darth) died last night.  My sincere condolences to his family.

There were a couple of days while this blog was an infant that I failed to post a daily update, but after an upbraiding from one of my children who used the daily entries as a way to make sure that Dad was okay, I began banging them out every day, even when I didn't feel like it, and there were also days when the thoughts on postings were coming so fast that I did multiple entries.  Today's blog entry is number 6,760.  I'm thinking about retiring when I reach 10,000.

There were some "guest bloggers" along the way who contributed to the effort, and they are much appreciated.  My son, Tim, kept up the pace with hospital updates after my open-heart surgery in Phoenix in 2013, and my old friends "Ranger Bob" and "xobekim" have contributed their incisive insights into current affairs.  There have also been many insightful and special comments posted along the way.  I treasure every response, even the ones which were less than flattering.   It takes a village to support the village idiot!

I have posted to this blog from a variety of states and several foreign locations, and tried to come up with something every day that would be of interest to at least some people besides myself.  This portal has been used save things that I have written such as fiction, lame poetry, and even some university assignments that I wanted to preserve, though Allah alone knows why!  Quite a bit of my family history research also resides within the Ramble, along with stories about my friend, Rusty Pails, and plenty of my day-to-day adventures around the house and farm. There are stories focused on my grandchildren (four of the six have been born since I started this effort), family pets, vehicles, embarrassing situations, and all manner of life as it happened.  

My hope is that this mountain of shameless typing will outlast me and that one day in the distant future some of my descendants, or yours, may mine a few nuggets of useful information from this voluminous archive of perosonal, social, and political history.   

Until then, if someone will prop me up in front of the living room window each morning and open the laptop. I'll probably just keep typing!

Have a day - I know I will!