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On any other Saturday or holiday in the past, one could find me sitting in the Blogatorium churning out rich tapestries of verbal brilliance.
Ok, they’re not all rich, but they do tie the room together.
The generation of those posts are frequented by excessive references to bagels (usually of the Everything varietal) lovingly slathered with cream cheese, and the canine companions who use their own methods of persuasion to partake in my breakfast. They generally used their big brown eyes to convince me that the particulate used to flavor an Everything bagel is safe for their species.
There are a few reasons I’ve skipped those writing sessions recently.
The primary reason is that the dogs are no longer here.
They’re all off galivanting in a meadow somewhere with all of the other dogs that have graced my life.
Perhaps in another month or so we’ll bring another one in to fill that hound-shaped hole in our lives.
Missing puppy dogs isn’t the only reason I’ve skipped dispatching verbal brilliance to an otherwise dull internet. Rest assured, I’m still writing at the same frequency with the same quantity of breakfast foods sitting on the desk in front of me.
I’m working on my next book right now, and shaping and molding that thing into something better than the slapdash posts I put out here on the internet is taking some well-deserved time.
More to come on that later.
In the meantime, I would be remiss if I didn’t step to the digital podium today and call out a few gentlemen who need to be called out.
Several years ago I resolved to read more.
In the years since, I’ve done exactly that. On top of the five translations of the Bible I’ve read so far, I’ve loaded up my digital library with all sorts of non-fiction. The benefits from that resolution have been extraordinary.
There are two authors whose works grace my collection with more than a few entries.
Scott Adams was the author of the first book I read when I made that resolution a year or two before the lockdown. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big was the first book I read by Adams which wasn’t related to the Dilbert comic strip that made him famous. Since then I’ve gifted that book to a few nephews and hope they’ll get as much out of it as I did.
By now, I think I’ve read all of Adams’ non-Dilbert books.
The other author is Phil Robertson.
I don’t know what to say about Phil that hasn’t been said before, so I’ll just say this.
The Lord works with all sorts of clay.
In addition to reading their books, I’ve also listen to each of their podcasts over the last several years.
For the uninitiated, a podcast is a delivery mechanism for sports-betting commercials.
For several years up until the new year, Phil gathered with two of his sons and a nephew to discuss the Bible. Several months ago, Phil disappeared and his sons continued. It was later announced that in addition to some physical ailments Phil was enduring, he was also in cognitive decline.
Yesterday, 05/25/2025, Phil underwent what he always called the ultimate “address change”.
As near as I can tell, Scott Adams began podcasting around 2015 when Donald Trump began his first run for the Presidency. Last week when the Biden family announced that Joe had prostate cancer that had metastasized to his bones, Adams took to his daily podcast and said “Yeah me too.” He expects to “check out of this domain” sometime this summer.
His words not mine.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank both Phil and Scott for everything they’ve unknowingly done for me in the last several years.
I’ll never be able to fully express what that was.
Instead, I’m just going to flash back to that time earlier this morning where I had A.I. generate photos of the two together, each training the other in their craft.
God speed gentlemen.
