I’m turning off the email notifications function after this post goes out, or at least I’m trying to. I’m also trying to figure out where the tilde key is, so this may or may not happen.

Why? It’s like this.

When I hit “post,” the latest piece of glowing pose goes up on the site, and is immediately sent out via email. Which would be swell for rational human beings, but you know.

I’m a copy editor at heart. So the published post is just a first draft. I read it and re-read it and rewrite it and tweak and delete and polish and expand and change photos and translate back and forth to Hindi and fix way too many typos and spend a whole lot more time messing with it than it deserves. Sometimes I veer off in a totally different direction than I began; sometimes I kill it and start over. And as Liz knows all too well, many times I kill it altogether and that’s that.

Life is a work in progress, and so is the blog. But when it arrives in your mailbox via email, it’s still the first version before I spent three hours debating whether it should be a comma or a semicolon. Or whether I should give up or press on. Or whether the Eagles might come across the post and object to having “the” before the band name. In which case, of course, I would leave it. Possibly all caps.

Also, I never liked the concept of email notifications for blogs. It becomes such an obligation for the reader. Oh dear lord another rant arrived in my mailbox I must avoid it at all costs. Better one should happen across a blog deliberately, thinking hmmmm I wonder what the weird guy has been up to lately. I shall pour an eggnog and find out. So much more organic than having it arrive among utility company notices and rich Nigerians offering inheritances. (I would change that to “amongst” in future versions because it makes me sound exotic.)

So if my plan works, this will be the last time a blog post arrives in your email. Still open for business at the joint whenever you’re in the mood, and I appreciate your business. Nobody knows about this blog, so the people who do are muchly appreciated. (I would have gotten rid of muchly at some point because it is frowned upon in formal use and I’m nothing if not formal.)

Thanks for understanding.

And yes, I’ll kill this immediately. See?

No f***iñg idea where that tilde key resides.

—
Yeah, yeah, I ran today. Coach Ernie Pantusso is on the verge of firing me because my recovery level is somewhere at the bottom of Lake America. Possibly because we are running back-to-back-to-back long days, which would seem to be the definition of fatigue. But his only coaching experience appears to be as a major-league baseball coach, so I’m not sure what he knows about running.

Although I love this line:

Diane: You know, it took a great deal of courage for Norman to do what he did. I admire and envy him. He has heeded Thoreau who admonished us that, quote, “Life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”

Coach: Why didn’t he just say one “simplify”?

On with the show.

Also, if you DO happen to inherit a few million from a mystery Nigerian, please visit the Fast Picnic Patreon Page. It comes with email notifications, of course …