Straying from the Course

Dang! Another long break in my 'blogorhythm' has occurred...although not as bad as my previous 5-week absence, this one had a couple of mitigating factors behind it. As I mentioned in my previous post, I started to frequent the DDN's 'Speak Up!' message boards just a little too much. Many nights (and some days, too) would be spent checking up on posting activity--some might call it 'lurking'--to either my original posts or my replies to other topics. I just had to be able to respond rapidly to someone who would either condemn or congratulate me for my expression of personal opinion in that forum. My world began to revolve around the 30 or so frequent posters and the dynamics between our two online 'tribes'.

The only thing that was able to break me of this habit was a combined business/personal trip back east (Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania). Since my transportation would be on the company's 'dime', I decided to rent a car and drive the 8-9 hours each way. The drive was rather scenic (eastern Ohio and almost all of Pennsylvania were ablaze in autumn's fiery hues), despite the rain (and one patch of thick fog right around the Maryland border) that lasted almost the entire drive to the Baltimore area. I stayed in Maryland the first night and in northern Virginia for the second and was treated to political theater the likes I haven't seen before...except maybe in Ohio this year. Maryland and Virginia both have hotly contested US Senate races and Maryland's GOP governor is seeking re-election (with a blind woman as his running mate). The regional television stations must've been taking both DNC and RNC checks and heading straight to the bank. I didn't get a respite from politics in Pennsylvania, either (Senate and gubernatorial elections plus two contentious US House races featuring ethically challenged Republican representatives Curt Weldon and Don Sherwood). I just missed President Bush's 'fly-by' campaign stop for Sherwood in the Scranton suburbs but the papers had a field day with the photos and accompanying articles.

I was further kept from my 'cybersquatting' by a long-overdue visit to see my siblings and other relatives back in the Wilkes-Barre area. It was over two years ago that I brought the kids with me to see their aunts and uncles and nephews. I packed a lot of activity into those 80+ hours back home. The ride back (almost 500 miles straight through) was exhausting and I had to return to the office the following day. Only now am I able to put my thoughts to the keyboard on these and other events from the past 3 weeks.

In the following days, I will comment on some of the things I experienced on that trip (to include the excruciatingly limited options of terrestrial radio on long car journeys--especially through eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania) as well as a review of newspapers I picked up along both directions of my drive. This blog was started as a outlet to respond to our local paper here in the Dayton area so I thought it might be appropriate to see just how the DDN stacks up against other comparable dailies around the region. Hopefully this short respite will re-energize my blogging efforts (again) and allow me to provide my unique perspective on the issues of the day. Make sure to check back in a few days...