It is my habit to recognize Ocean's birthday on January 2nd. I've been writing daily posts here for 19 years today.
It makes me wonder: like, how long would I have to live in order to say that I have spent half my life on daily blogging? (Since I am 69 and I started 19 years ago then the answer has to be 100.) And this: what if a day comes along when absolutely nothing deserves an Ocean writeup, even given the relatively low bar of posting about trivial stuff? And what if I'm struck with acute memory loss (it happens to people my age!) -- should I keep on writing? Like -- Dear Ocean readers, Who are you and what is Ocean anyway?
Well, I'll worry about it if and when the time comes to worry about it. Nonetheless, I can say for sure that Ocean has evolved and it continues to adapt to changing circumstances. Just look at these 19 years! I mean, at the outset, I did not even own a digital camera. So, no photos. And, I was married, but did not want to, nor did I have permission to talk about my married life. I teamed up with friends who also blogged and we developed our own styles of writing. One person was very funny, another was political. I was not going to be either! So then where did I take this? I just kept writing.
Once I got my digital camera, there followed another period of experimentation. At first, the photos were small. Then they had tags attached -- Ed thought I should try to monetize Ocean, perhaps by selling photos. I was working still, and building my retirement fund, so I was game for any idea that would help. But of course, those trivial sums were never going to move me even one inch closer to financial security, so I dropped that idea. Still, if you go back to earlier posts, you'll find sale tags on each photo. Yuk.
And, too, Blogger -- my hosting platform, changed. I had to shift in the design because they canceled my initial layout. And they stopped supporting Flickr -- my storage place for photos. I moved Ocean photos to Google storage. Eventually, too, I changed the name. The Other Side of the Ocean, sounded to me like a romance novel you'd find at the grocery store checkout. So I cut it down to simply Ocean. Never mind that it makes no sense to call it just Ocean. There is no mention of aquatic life here, not ocean currents, not even sailing - except when Ed ventures out on the Atlantic. A rare event. Still, the blog is and will remain Ocean.
Have there been low points? Oh sure. There are the technicalities: in the first years, the internet was not an ever present thing. Coverage was interrupted at home and not available in places I traveled to. I'd knock on doors begging for a quick Internet fix. Too, finishing a post the same day is hard! I. Get. Sleepy. Forcing myself to get to the end of it, to articulate a final thought -- that's my most common challenge. And, I've had to fight the opposition! I had a troll. Probably more than one, but one was persistent and insistent. I nearly reported her to the authorities. And, I've not always had support from all my friends. But, I've made more friends than I lost over Ocean (and the detractors have come around, tolerating this side of me). My daughters have been fabulous, never complaining about stuff that appears here. But in the end, I am certain that I would have given up if it weren't for Ed. He never reads Ocean these days. He claims that he lives with all my ideas and therefore doesn't have to read about them. Still, he knows that this is what I do and he helps in numerous ways to make that possible. Computers crash. Photos get lost. Dinner and movie watching gets delayed. He's there, by my side, or just a Zoom call away if I am traveling, and he will offer help. Calm, reassuring help.
I think it's clear that this is a never ending work in progress. Because life is that way too! Nineteen years ago my daughters were not married and I had no idea if and when I would be a grandparent. Now, my life is filled with grandkids and thus Ocean is filled with grandkid antics. For how long? Who knows. I do think the best senior years are to be had if you don't tie yourself down to one idea of what constitutes a good life. You work on staying hopeful, healthy and happy. (Of course, those three are absolutely interconnected!) And so, I eat my veggies and my kids give me plenty of hope and through Ocean, I am in a never ending search for all that is beautiful, joyous and delightful. Kids, chicks, trips. Ed, flowers, forests. Cats. Cherries on the tree, cherries on a special plate, eaten on the porch in dappled sunlight. Sometimes just a quiet walk to the barn and back. It all makes my life wondrous and wonderful and you'll find something of it here, in my posts, I hope.
Today, however, the walk to the barn was uninspiring. Cloudy, at the freezing point, with antsy chickens and cats.
The color is all inside the farmhouse. Candles, a few flowers, Wisconsin raw honey. Oatmeal with steam rising. Milky coffee and a sleepy Ed. All that sensory pleasure! Enough to last me for a long stretch, as I catch up on chores and Ed washes the floor boards, because yesterday he muddied them with his soaking muddy sock.
He proposes a walk in Owen Woods for the afternoon. I'm for it. It's not a long hike (the park is right in the middle of the city and the longest trail takes about 50 minutes to complete), but it's got all the essential components. See for yourself! Look hard!
And in the evening we eat chili. January and chili are like blueberries and Maine (did you know that Maine produced 99% of this country's blueberries?).
A second day of trying to do better. Remember, you only have to try!
With love...
