A. Blinken... I took stock of my website last night, and came to a decision I’ve been working on for some time now. I started it as one thing, one simple thing, a way to talk about what I’d learned from my Granny Wise. It was my attempt to make people more open to new ways of looking at folks, to reduce the meanness in our society. I was trying, in my way, to heal the world.

(Look! A paragraph!) Writing for the website went from being a hobby to a pre-occupation. My work has suffered, my personal relationships have suffered. Half the people in the river canyon won’t talk to me, and the other half shake me down first to see if I have my recorder turned on. I’ve displaced several old ladies as the primary source of gossip among the cousins. Tally literally said to me "I’m going to name my daughter ‘Balloonjoos’, after you."

Which leaves me with gratitude, and a debt, to those who have been steady readers. The gratitude is easy: thank you for spending your time reading my project. The debt is more difficult to address, but I think I have a way.

I’ll leave off writing myself for awhile. If Granny and Tally, or anyone else local, wants to post something, I’ll post it for them and note the site update.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to buy some woodworking tools that Ed Radsic has for sale cheap, and put them in the back of my shop. I want to learn to make furniture. If I spend my time working wood instead of crafting electrons, I’ll at least have something solid to show for my time; at worst, I’ll be able to warm the house with it. Eventually, I hope, local folks will once again forgive, if not forget, my transgressions, and people will stop crossing the street when they see me coming. Jeez, I hate that.

Thank you!

Aaron Blinken