I think there are two reasons this time, one familiar and one new.

Let’s face it: I’ve been blogging at An Eclectic Mind since long before it had that name. My first blog post was way back in 2003. The blog had my name back then, Maria Langer, and it could be found at MariaLanger.com — where it can still be found; try it! I wrote about the things that were on my mind. For a while, I wrote computer-related how-to content, but I eventually broke that out and put it into a site called Maria’s Guides which I’ve since allowed to die. I wrote a lot about politics. I wrote a lot about my work and my play. I wrote a lot about my crazy divorce. I wrote a lot about social media. I wrote a lot about building a new life in Washington State.

Heck, I just wrote a lot about anything that was on my mind.

And that’s what I personally think a blog is for. At least this blog.

There are no ads here. No tracking. No annoying pop-ups begging you to subscribe or send me money. It’s just the blog of a writer — a person who has always written — sharing what’s on her mind.

If you come here often to read my latest and actually like a lot of what you read, great! I’m thrilled to have you here!

But if you stumbled in here unknowingly and have concluded that this blog is crap and a total waste of your time, well, just go away and don’t come back. It doesn’t bother me.

And if you think that’s harsh, well blame social media. (Also understand that “go away” is not what I originally wrote.)

The Dearth of New Blog Posts Here

I use an app on my Mac called MarsEdit to compose all my blog posts. One of the features I really like about it is that it keeps a database on my computer of every single post. So I can scroll back through past posts and see titles and dates of past posts. I can quickly link to them in new posts or just view them in Mars Edit or in a browser to remember what I wrote.

What I’m seeing right now is that between April 15 and July 26, I didn’t write a damn thing here. That’s more than three months.

I have two excuses for this dearth of blog posts.

I’m Busy

The first excuse is the one I usually produce for such occasions: I am busy. Unlike a lot of people out there, I live a full and relatively active life that often keeps me away from home and a keyboard I can actually type on. (No, I won’t blog from a phone or tablet. Don’t even suggest such a thing.)

Back in April, I was dealing with getting my boat across the mountains and having it serviced and put into the water to join a charter program. Everyone (other than me) was working in slow motion. It was incredibly frustrating and anger inducing. And costly. I paid to have my boat sitting in dry dock for two weeks when it only needed to be there for a few days — if the people doing the work would have done it promptly.

Okay, ’nuff said. No reason to get worked up about something that I dealt with months ago.

They got my boat into the water on April 8. Before that, it was in dry dock. After that, it was at it’s new home at Squalicum Harbor Marina. As I type this, it’s at Stuart Island, earning me about $3,200 for the week.

Anyway, I spent most of the month of April on the boat doing the things I needed to do and nagging everyone else to do what they needed to do. The boat lives in Bellingham WA now and that’s a 4-hour drive from my house. I spent more time on the boat in April than I did in my own home.

Then May. One of my Hobbies Gone Wild is silversmithing. I make jewelry out of gemstone cabochons, sterling silver, and copper. I’ve been at it since about 2018 and I’ve actually gotten pretty good. I sell my work at art shows in Washington and Arizona. May was the first two art shows I’d participated in since summer 2023. (Regular readers may recall that I did a 8000+ nautical mile boat trip between 2022 and 2024?) Before I could do the shows, I had to gather together all my show equipment, make sure it was ready to use, and make a bunch of new inventory. That first show was Mother’s Day Weekend and I had my second (now third) best weekend ever. The next show was Memorial Day Weekend, just two weeks later, and I had more inventory to make after selling so much at the previous show. So yeah, I was busy.

And in between all that, also in May, I was the instructor on a 5-day “Learn ‘n’ Cruise” class for San Juan Yachting. And then a half-day class refresher class for the first client to charter my boat. (Please don’t ask.) Around that time is when the problems with the new rudder indicator reared their ugly head. That fiasco took up a lot of my time, too.

When June rolled along, I taught another 5-day class. And then I took the boat out with my good friend Janet for two weeks in Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands with a stop in Victoria BC. If you’re keeping count, that’s 19 out of 30 days. I spent another 2 days on the boat before I went home.

By this time, it was pretty obvious that neglecting my yard and garden was paying off negative dividends. I split my time between making more jewelry inventory and trying to get control of the weeds and irrigation system. My boat trailer and truck camper remained parked in the driveway, which is absurd when you realize that I have a 2880 square foot garage.

Then July came and I had two shows to do. One was local but four days long. The other was all the way out at Sequim on the coast — a 5-hour drive. I took my camper. While I was out there, I dropped my laptop and broke the screen. I had to stop at the Apple Store on the way home to get it fixed. I also stopped at IKEA to buy some organization solutions for my jewelry studio. And a friend’s house. And a consignment client. It took me two days to get home. I camped overnight up in the national forest near Stampede Pass.

And now it’s still July. I’ve been home for nearly a week, thrilled that I don’t have to lock myself up each day in my jewelry studio to make inventory for yet another show. I’ve been pulling a lot of weeds, using a chainsaw daily, and assembling IKEA furniture. But tomorrow I head to Fort Walton Beach FL to help the owner of a Beneteau Antares 11 reposition the boat from there to Jacksonville, a distance of about 750 miles — if we go through the middle of Florida instead of around the bottom. The forecast on Wednesday is 81°F with a 50% chance of rain and at least 80% humidity. And have you heard that it’s hurricane season? Fun times!

I also spent part of this month writing two boating articles for publication and being interviewed for a podcast.

So yeah, I’ve been busy. And when I get back, I’ll still be busy, with yet another art show coming up at the end of August.

(I admit here that I’ve shuffled the deck a bit and hope to get another boating gig at month end — something interesting enough to get me to cancel that art show appearance. Cross your fingers for me.)

Excuse #2: The Journal

And now I’d like to introduce a second excuse for not blogging as regularly as I should: my journal.

Back in 2024, I started making daily entries in journal. I completed every day in 2024 and, so far this year, have only missed about 10 days.

In my journal, I write down what I did that day, along with any thoughts I had in my head. There’s nothing really great about it. I’m using it as a memory device for when I get older and my memory fails. I can look through the book and remember the things I did and thought.

But I think that writing in the journal has made it feel less important for me to blog. In a way, the journal is taking away my need to share what’s going on in my head. So blogging doesn’t seem as important.

Does that make sense?

Going Forward

I’m going to try to get back into writing or blogging on a regular basis. Over the past three days, I’ve written a bunch of blog posts for this blog as well as My Great Loop Adventure. I’ve set the publication dates and times so they don’t all get published on the same day.

As usual, they will be a mix of what’s going on in my life and what I’m thinking about. Some of them might interest you. Some of them might not. But then again, isn’t that what my blog has always been?

I’m also going to try to share links to blog posts and other online content that I’ve really enjoyed and can recommend. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share those on a timely basis.

Your comments are always appreciated.