hello blogsphere

Did you miss me? After various events including a stomach virus (both kids), pink eye (also both kids), a local tornado, power failure, and a lot of random weeping, I'm back to comment on life. We are so lucky the storms did next to no damage on our property. A friend of mine in Knoxville found a check from someone in Ooltewah in her yard. When her husband looked up the names, the couple and their child died in the storms. Another person posted on facebook that he drove through Ringgold right after the storm and there was a guy in the middle of the road. He put his window down and asked the guy if he was okay. The guy said, (with a dazed look on his face) "Yeah, I was just blown here." All I can picture is a Bill and Ted moment and the guy saying, "Dude."

The storms have shaken the writer in me out of inertia.That might be an overstatement. I'm still just thinking about it. However, if I don't write my stuff and some random thing occurs and I die than it will never be written. I'm not such a megalomaniac as to suggest that the world would be greatly diminished minus my stories. Still, I am the only one who can write my stories so if I don't do it, it doesn't get done.

Speaking of megalomania, because I like that word today, when I heard about Osama Bin laden's death it didn't take long for me to wonder if Mom had something to do with finding him (or Dad). Maybe there are enough people in heaven now for a quorum. I can't remember what quorum means right now so I may be horribly misusing it but it seemed the right word. I'm glad Bin laden's been caught but I do worry about repercussions. I know God tells us not to worry and I acknowledge that he can turn all things for good. But, he also tells us our lives will be full of pain and hardship and I have a hard time being all groovy with that idea. I can deal and I will but it does cause some anxiety.

One of my writer friends, Rusty, has a blog (The Blutonian Death Egg) and on it he wrote about blogs often being too long. I winced and thought, 'is he talking about me?' gulp. Which, of course, suggests that he is even still reading my blog which is unlikely. I think the majority of my readers fell off when the primary story came to an end (parents died). I don't know whether short or long is better. Most of the time I enjoy several paragraphs when I am reading other people's blogs so I try to do the same on here. Maybe it ought to be more of a check-in. I guess I need to sit back and think, 'What would Doogie Howser do?' Because after all, isn't that where blogging began? If only I had the theme song going in the background.