Yesterday, I became an uncle for the first time in my life. Kim’s sister Jessica gave birth to her first daughter, LiliAnn Faye Scherer. She’s beautiful.
The funny thing is that I hadn’t ever planned on being an uncle. In fact, the concept of actually being one was still quite foreign. As an only child, there weren’t going to be many opportunities. Even so, I’ve grown pretty excited about it and am really looking forward to participating in the growth and life of my niece. It’s just a shame that we live so far away, but maybe that will change. Oh, and of course, congrats Jessica and Michael!
Welcome LiliAnn, Im’m looking forward to meeting you soon!
Last fall, I decided that I was going to start blogging about roadtripping the National Parks. Kim and I were fresh off a long summer roadtrip that covered 8700 in 17 states. We had completed a fall trip to Canyonlands National Park – long on our to-do list – and were planning on completing all of the Texas national park units that winter if ASU failed to make a bowl game. I had started compiling writing ideas, from tips and techniques to top 10 lists to insights about favorite destinations.
The idea was to start the blog, build a bit of a readership, immerse myself in the travel writing world, and improve my writing. One day, I reasoned, I might want to write a travelogue of my own, which would focus on my quest to visit various places that played key roles in the history of public land protection in America.
Of course, the best laid plans, right? While I snagged up a few domains, continued stockpiling writing ideas, subscribed to a ton of travel blogs and sought out travel and national park related social media opportunities on Twitter, I’ve yet to write a single freaking post.
Most of that is certainly due to a lack of time and energy – things have been very busy recently, and it doesn’t seem like the right time to try to squeeze something else into the mix. But that’s not all of the reason. I like planning things out, making sure I have done the required homework, and not necessarily one to jump in without giving something a thought. Since I haven’t had time to commit to spending any money getting the blog designed, nor have I had the time to fumble through doing it myself, I’ve procrastinated on doing the most important thing you need to do to have a successful blog – write something compelling, interesting, and useful. Instead, I’m concerned that I haven’t learned the art of Google AdSense, or am wondering which sidebar items are the most important to highlight.
There are some possible big changes afoot, and I’m wondering how much time and/or energy I’ll have to actually get this thing going. In short, I’m wondering if I should, indeed, commit to this project. Am I willing to forgo relaxing after a long day at work to write yet another post? Am I willing to skimp on dinner so I can afford to invest in the blog? Right now, the obvious answer is no. We’ll have to wait and see if it stays that way.
