Taking a Break
I started Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog early in 2009. Since then I have posted 1552 posts, mostly five or six hundred words in length, although lately there have been more photo posts. That’s no coincidence … I seem to be, as my mother used to say, running out of steam as a blogger. Frequently these days, I go to bed without having drafted a post for the next day, sometimes because I don’t have an idea but other times because I just don’t feel like posting. I am sometimes capable of turning an avocation, which is (in my opinion) meant fulfilling and fun to a vocation (fulfilling and work). Sticking that Postaday badge in the corner of my Home Page seems to have been a mistake. I take it a bit too seriously. Don’t get me wrong … I am an advocate of posting regularly, not just when I feel like it. Some of my favorite posts have turned up when I sat down with nothing to say and there is nothing quite as fulfilling having that happen.
Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog has more followers than ever and it gets enough traffic that if you Google Older Eyes, it will appear at the top of the page. But views hover stubbornly in the 50-80 range and comments are rare. I’ve said many times that I write for myself but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it’s disappointing to post something I really like and get no Likes or comments. I know I have readers who are lurkers because occasionally in one of my meetings someone will mention something I said in a post and I do get a few comments on Facebook. Lately I’ve noticed that my favorite bloggers on my short Blogs I Read list are posting sporadically or not at all. One old blogging friend, Marjulo, last posted on her blog, Listen to the Sun Rise, that she had been diagnosed inoperable cancer. I checked her blog regularly for any news but now it’s gone so it’s likely she’s no longer with us. Sometimes, I feel like the last one at what used to be a party. Yes, that’s ridiculous … there are millions of us out there. In my current state of mind I just don’t have what it takes to hunt down a new blogging community.
So. I’m taking down the Postaday Badge and I’m taking a break. I may spend some time working on my legacy blog, A Dad’s Legacy. Nobody reads that either but I’m hoping someday my kids … or my grandkids … will. There’s a good chance I’ll be back but I don’t know when or how often. After five years of this, there’s a good chance I’ll see something and think, That would make a good blog post … and eventually, I’ll have to write it. Maybe I’ll change some things around here or move around here to somewhere else. Who knows. Thanks to those of you who’ve taken time to read and especially to those who’ve Liked or commented. See you later, probably soon.
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Older Eyes 
June 13, 2014 at 6:14 pm
I hope to be seeing you sooner rather than later. I’ve always been a fan of your writing, even if it hasn’t seemed like it lately.
I’m guilty of posting less frequently these days too, and also guilty of commenting less frequently. I’ve tossed around quitting, but never too seriously. Maybe this is just the course of being a blogger. Unless we end up like Dooce and get paid to do this, it becomes hard to keep up the pace we established in the early, enthusiastic days.
I know you need to write, so this is really not the end. And I have both of your blogs in my reader so I’ll be keeping an eye out for you.
… I was kind of hoping to find the April Fools link at the end of the post.
June 17, 2014 at 4:50 pm
I’m glad you’re giving yourself this break, Bud. Not that you’re “taking a break,” but that you’re giving it to yourself. I remember a time, at the end of a 265 post-a-day, when you said you might not do it the following year. And you did. There is no reason to commit to something you’re not up for, and I’m glad you forgive yourself the perceived debt. We all have busy times in our lives; I have barely posted at all in months, and for some reason, your posts no longer show up in my reader feed, so I have to actually come looking for you. Rest assured, I will look again, my friend.
June 25, 2014 at 8:35 am
Bud, As you know I went “cold turkey” and haven’t clicked on my reader feed button in the last 2 and a half weeks as I, too, just needed to walk away from the computer for a bit. My problem seems to be that I get started with something and immerse myself to the point of burnout. With that being said, I hadn’t realized that you were taking a break. I hang my head in shame that it took me the better part of three weeks to notice. I am a bad blogging friend and will keep a much more watchful eye for your return.
As far as your blog goes….today upon opening up my reader feed, I will be reading less than 10 blogs but yours is by far the first and the clear front runner that I went to to read. I follow an embarrassingly large number of blogs, which in part is what helped create the time suck that blogging became…but I found real entertainment and enjoyment in less that a dozen or so of the myriad of blogs I follow, Your blog is always interesting and thought provoking.
If you plan on taking an extended break, please feel free to email me with quick updates or your thoughts on the where blogging might fit or not fit into your future OR for that matter, any little thing on your mind.
I am in total agreement with your thoughts concerning the dilemma of finding pleasure in writing in this format versus the disappointments. It is a bit of a punch in the gut when a post you think is good meets a lukewarm response. And just as you stated, I would say that my reader count has steadily increased but I have noticed a general decline in blog readership in general. Plus there is the point of being “tapped” out as far as creative dialogue that would be interesting to others and still be of interest to ourselves.
So, my blogging friend, I hope to see you back writing your wonderful blog…even if it is intermittent. In the mean time, if you just need to vent or share a thought my email is artofconflicted@aol.com