{"id":18579,"date":"2016-12-13T15:03:15","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T15:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18579"},"modified":"2016-12-13T15:04:18","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T15:04:18","slug":"full-time-blogging-is-just-so-much-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18579","title":{"rendered":"Full-time blogging is just so much fun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"retirement.pic_\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.<\/em><\/p>\n

I feel compelled to give you an update on the status of this blog.<\/p>\n

I call it High Plains Blogger because that’s where I live: on the High Plains of the Texas Panhandle; the Llano Estacado; or what I call — with great affection, of course — the Texas Tundra.<\/p>\n

I created it in 2012 after leaving a career in daily print journalism. The end of that career came rather quickly. It wasn’t how I envisioned a nearly 37-year career would end. I’ve told folks for years now that all I wanted was a going-away party, with a sheet cake and frosting that had a message wishing well and thanking me for a job well done.<\/p>\n

It didn’t happen that way … but what the hey, that’s life, man.<\/p>\n

I created this blog and was able to transfer a lot of the blogging I’d done at the Amarillo Globe-News into High Plains Blogger’s archives.<\/p>\n

My traffic of late has shown tremendous growth. Indeed, over the lifetime of High Plains Blogger my daily “hits” — which include page views and something called “unique visitors” — has increased about five-fold.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s not where I want it just yet, but it’s creeping its way toward a more acceptable level. I don’t have an end point. I haven’t said, “When it gets to a certain level, I think I’ll\u00a0cap it right there.” Oh, no. You can’t have too many<\/em> readers, too many<\/em> followers, too many<\/em> people willing to offer comment.<\/p>\n

My intention is to keep self-promoting whenever I feel it is appropriate. Today seems like an appropriate time to call attention to this blog.<\/p>\n

Full-time blogging is far more fun than I ever imagined it would be. Yes, I enjoyed writing for The Man. I did it for nearly four decades. I enjoyed some success. I had a hiccup or two along the way.<\/p>\n

All told, it was a career made more fun by the people I have\u00a0encountered along the way and some of the amazing things I was able to do: Flying over an erupting volcano in March 1980 on a picture-taking mission was one of them; landing on the deck of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in 1993, the USS Carl Vinson, and then being catapulted off the deck is another.<\/p>\n

Blogging, though, is a new career I intend to pursue for as long as I can as I enter full-time retirement. You see, this full-time blogging pursuit is something that co-exists quite nicely with full-time retirement. Neither title — blogger and retiree — is mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n

So, with that, I say “thank you” to those who read this blog regularly and to those who have offered comment. Yes, I even want to thank the critics. You know who you are. I try my best not to take it personally, as long as the criticism doesn’t call me nasty names.<\/p>\n

Let’s enjoy the ride for as long as we can.<\/p>\n\n

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This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement. I feel compelled to give you an update on the status of this blog. I call it High Plains Blogger because that’s where I live: on the High Plains of the Texas Panhandle; the Llano Estacado; or what I call … Continue reading Full-time blogging is just so much fun<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[670,2122,3148,3920,5060],"class_list":["post-18579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-blogging","tag-high-plains-blogger","tag-mount-st-helens","tag-retirement","tag-uss-carl-vinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18581,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18579\/revisions\/18581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}