blog vacation

For most of my life my yearly schedule has been determined by the school year. Public school, then college, then grad school, all encourage efforts that begin in September, continue through part of May or June, and then allow a sabbatical for a few months before doing it all over again. In college and particularly in graduate school, that rhythm got especially intense: even though the fall semester was only 13 weeks long, it seemed to take at least two weeks at Christmas just to feel like a normal human being again. As the semester rolled on, one fell into the seven day, 18-hour work week, with plenty of stress, constant deadlines and performance pressures of one kind and another.  The second semester picked up right where the first one left off, and by May we were all walking dead. And then came the recitals and the juries. Oh my.

Even since that time, even though I don't teach at the university, I still run on that schedule. The choral organizations I work for run September through May, and the church, which has four services a weekend, a choir, a band, soloists, pageants and performances and all church events, powers up in September and down in June. In July it is practically a ghost town some days.

All of which is to explain to you, reader, why I'm going to take some time off from my hectic three-day a week blogging routine once again. I've been at it now for 2 years, October through the fourth of July. And where last year I had to take an unscheduled absence because my computer died just before I was going to publish my last blog, this year I've already overstayed my welcome and just need the rest. If you need something to read, I'll bet you haven't seen all 200 blogs I've written in the last two years. That should keep you busy.

There is a slight change, though, this time around. I'm in the middle of a weekly blog series on Fridays about the pipe organ, while we at Faith UMC are getting ours repaired and updated. I'll continue to write that 20 part series every Friday, and simply leave off blogging on Mondays and Wednesdays. And I'll resume my normal blogging activities around the first of October.

I'll be using the time to rest, and organize the website and blog. I've also got a project or two up my sleeve (as always). Enjoy your summer, too, before it slips away.

Don't say I didn't warn you!