Getting Rid of the Junk
Netbook Update

Ronni Returns with Some New Elderblogs

Well, hello, everyone. It’s good to be back and to see you again. My two-week sabbatical turned into nearly three weeks because there were that many good stories from guest bloggers.

Before I get any further into this post, a huge, warm thank you to all 18 elderbloggers who filled in for me so magnificently. Please give them a big round of applause for the excellent job they did while I rested.

I have done this three or four times before in my life: withdrawn from everyone and everything for two weeks. But I had not done it in about 15 years. Unlike past sabbaticals from daily life, I was not entirely incommunicado this time. I answered some, but not all email, enjoyed a couple of social events and joined with neighbors following three snow storms to dig ourselves out.

Primarily, however, I was alone.

Aside from my news addiction with early morning coffee, I avoided almost everything that has consumed most of my waking hours for five years - anything related to aging, blogging and the computer. I read a couple of books for pleasure, saw a couple of movies, got the cat to the vet for his annual vaccines, cleaned out all four junk drawers and spent about six hours over two days trying to unstick the E key on my laptop which, it now appears, I made worse. (Please do not ask how hard it is to write anything with a sticky E key.)

Other than that and an entire inauguration day glued to television, I cannot account for myself. Here, however, are the meager lessons I learned over these two-and-a-half, solo weeks:

  1. I am capable of thinking and doing absolutely nothing over a remarkably long period of time while feeling not a twinge of guilt and liking every moment of it.

  2. I am not capable of thinking clearly enough to arrive at any conclusions unless I am writing it – whatever IT is - while I think.

Not much to show for 18 days and that information is not entirely new, only reinforced and more acceptable to me than in the past. As unproductive as the time was, I feel so mentally refreshed that I have decided to continue this kind of blog hiatus on a semi-annual basis.

Some blog housekeeping notes:

ITEM: Feedburner, which delivers Time Goes By to many readers by RSS and email, has gone all wonky and miserable lately so new posts are sent out a day (and sometimes more) late. About a year ago, Feedburner was bought by Google which, I discovered in reading around the web, has a history of allowing acquisitions to deteriorate and there has been quite a lot of online complaint about the problems with Feedburner. I do not have a solution right now.

ITEM: Some stories for The Elder Storytelling Place have arrived (thank you so much) and that blog will resume posting new stories next Monday. If you’ve been thinking about sending a story, now would be a good time to do it. Instructions are here.

ITEM: During my sabbatical, a new regular column was inaugurated – The TGB Elder Geek from tech master extraordinaire, Virginia DeBolt. Her column will appear here twice a month and questions are welcome. So email (click the “contact” link at the top of the left sidebar) anything tech-oriented that puzzles you – about your computers, blogging, web questions, etc. and Virginia will do her best to make them easily understandable.

And remember, there is no such thing as a dumb question; if you're having trouble with it, undoubtedly someone else is too.

ITEM: If you sent an email during my hiatus that needs a reply, please resend. I’ve tried to cull them from my now overcrowded inbox, but have undoubtedly missed some.

ITEM: I fibbed, above, in explaining how I used my hiatus time: I did spend one afternoon updating the Elderbloggers List in the left sidebar. Here are 20 additions. Check them out; they’re all good elderblogs - not necessarily new, but new to the list.

20th Century Woman

Awaiting Buddha

Berry Blog

Chez Namastenancy

Country Roads

The Cyberspace Dawdler

Dying Man’s Daily Journal

Ellouisestory

Havenwood

How to Change the World

Lee Cantrell Speaks

Linda’s World

The Musings of a Middle-Aged Woman

Retired and Restless

Senior Health Moment

Sylvia from Over the Hill

Tread Softly

True Blue Quilting Nana

Unsilent Generation

A View from England

Again, a heartfelt thank you to all the guest elderbloggers. It was terrific to have all this time off knowing that Time Goes By was in such excellent hands.

Comments

Ronni, I appreciate the recommendation and I'm honoured that you have added my blog to your Elderbloggers List. Thank you!

It's good to have you back and I'm pleased to hear that you had a nice break from blogging and made time to relax.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with loafing, if you are above sustainance level otherwise. I applaud your decision to schedule some "down" time for yourself - which schedule I interpreted as being twice each year rather than every second year. Welcome back. I missed you!

Welcome back Ronni.

I am stunned to realize that Guy Kawasaki at the blog How to Change the World is an elder blogger. I think of him as a bright young guy. Shows I'm aging!

Welcome back, Ronni.

We missed you and are happy you and Ollie had such a nice "Holiday"

Welcome back! Even though I knew you were gone I came by everyday and appreciated the guest bloggers.

Glad to see you back but also to hear your break was a good time for you.

Welcome back from me, too, Ronni. Sounds like the hiatus was wonderful; I may try it myself.
Thanks for the new links, too; I'll explore over the next couple of weeks.

Welcome back, Ronni. :)

I want to add my welcome back to the others. You are my morning "fix" and I missed having it. However, the great posts of the substitute bloggers were so interesting that I survived.

It's good to have you back.

Does anyone besides me have the theme song to Welcome Back Kotter rolling around in their brain?

To that same old place that you laughed about.

Hallllooo, Ronni!

Ronnie, Welcome back. I know you don't post links, but I would urge you to add to your blog list the following relevant "elder" bloggers from Silver Planet, a site for 55+ embracing positive aging: Sara Meyers ("A Good Enough Daughter"); Dr. Ellie Greenberg ("Dear Ellie"); Gael Stuart ("The Silver Sage"); Don Griffin ("Blabby and Crabby"). Please check these out at www.silverplanet.com

Much thanks to your champions of guest bloggers! So glad you are back!

I missed you,too, Ronni, but am very glad to hear you had a good rest, so well-deserved!

Feedburner is being allowed to die as people switch to Google reader. Do it, it is awesome and you'll love it. Other than the Google knowing everything you read, that is.

Welcome back, Ronni! Sounds like you made good use of your time off and I know it must have felt great, but it's really good to have you back! And how cool about the Tech Elder! I do have a question for her. Enjoyed your fill-bloggers, they all had great posts. Just wanted you to know again that you are muchly appreciated for all you do. Thanks and again, WELCOME BACK!

Welcome back Ronni - although I picked up a bunch of new blogs to read, I missed your wit :)

Could you do me a favor when you have time. Could you change me on your blog roll -- I recently decided to get my own domain and changed my blog from Hshawjr-My Thoughts to agingreluctantly.com? It is still a bit rough around the edges, but it is getting there.

It just seemed to be where I have been going with my blogging.

WELCOME BACK, WE DID MISS YOU! and I hope the shoveling wasn't too bad this morning. We got up at 5:00 A.M. to make sure wife got to work on time. :) Gotta love living in Maine.

Talk to you soon

Harold

Glad you are back Ronni. Safe and sound and all rested and mentally alert. I wonder what Ollie thought about your vacation from the computer. He must have enjoyed having you all to himself.

Cheers!

Hi Ronni. Don't let that sticky E key bother you. Gadsby, a book of 50,000 words, was written without the letter E being used.

See www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby/

I'm not sure if I should congratulate you more on taking some alone time off, or that you were able to ignore your computer for that long. I've gotten so addicted to my computer, that I do wonder how I'd do for a few weeks away from life on the net (or god forbid...my blackberry). Your sabbatical reminded me of summers I spent as a teenager in our family's country house in Sutton, Quebec. For several years, from 17 to about 19, I enjoyed my own walkabout. At that time I didn't have a car, so my entire family would head up to Sutton for a weekend. When they left, I'd stay behind in the country, with a stocked cupboard and our dog for company, and rediscover myself for a couple of weeks. If I had to go to town, it was a 2 mile walk down the hill and I'd fearlessly hitch a ride back up. I never felt lonely or guilty then and I'm now feeling quite inspired by you to recreate walkabout. Hmmm. Well, welcome back.

Welcome back, Ronni. Glad you had your Sabbatical..."if I am not for myself, who will be"? You have to be kind to yourself and do what needs to be done. I enjoyed your guest bloggers and appreciate the chance to get new perspectives. Thank you.

I add my voice to the many who welcome you back Ronni. Your service is so valuable to all of us. And although I am very grateful for our new techno-geeky blogger, I am super glad you used your time off well and are back in full swing. I've been trying to go to as many new blogs as I can to make friends for "50 To Death" and yours seems to continue to be the best.

Hey, good to see you're back! And thanks a million for adding me to the blogroll. I'm honored to be included.

As for doing nothing, hey. Why not. I'm glad you enjoyed the time off.

Vicki

Glad to see you're back. Coincidentally, am just getting back here myself. Always enjoy reading the new bloggers (to me) you have guest here. Will try to catch up with some of them over time.

As a longtme crusader against not only a geism but age apartheid,especially in families, would like to be an elder blogger.i've been writing a column for 33 years for Manhattan weekly our Town and in the last six years it also appears in the West Side Spirit. It's about alot of things that need ith bettering and protesting, not only ageism and age apartheid.
Unfortuantely it was made a bi-wekely in 03.

I'm old and I'm proud!

Elvira Oliver (99), currently the world's oldest blogger, who grew up in Brooklyn, will celebrate her 100th birthday on July 18.
Your myriad members may like to visit her blog and wish her well: http://theoldestbloggeronearth.blogspot.com/

For more about her, see a story I wrote last year: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=385592&rel_no=1

The second oldest blogger lives in Florida. His name is Randall Butasingh, and his thoughtful blog is posted at http://randallbutisingh.wordpress.com/about/

I also wrote about him: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=385262&rel_no=1

Best wishes, Eric.

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