An anniversary took place on Saturday. I noticed it late, on Sunday ... because many of you have been marking your own one-year observances here, too.

Here's how I started out over here--my first efx2 post:

A quick howdy Ironic, isn't it? That on the day I discover ModBlog has risen from the dead, Frankenstein-like, I go off to find a new blog home. Yes, still another ModBlog refugee. I'm not bailing on MB. Not yet anyway. I'll be posting to MB, but I'll also be writing here, too. Whatever I write, you know it will be wordy. Full of words. Some good. Some bad. Some interesting. Others not. All by me. That's what I wanted my MB space to be. That's how it was. But with all the outages lately, I feel like it's time to put many of my blogging eggs--perhaps most of them--into another basket. So that's what this is about.

And it went on another two paragraphs and ended with me observing that I had a few other things I needed to do that night before bed. But the die was cast. It was the process of moving one foot from the dock to the boat: The other one inevitably must follow. By midway through January, I was posting over here almost exclusively. Naturally, MB's increasingly erratic nature encouraged this transition.

But so did the people, the fellow refugees I found over here, some of whom I had met over there, and others who became new friends. The community I feared I was losing with MB's death throes, I found alive and well and blogging like crazy over here. It was very happy news. It's damn hard for me to make good friends, and I didn't really want to have to start the process over again. Luckily, I didn't have to.

I don't write as much as I want. Work and other pursuits have this tendency to eat up the available time. Sometimes when I have the inspiration, I don't have the time. The opposite is often true, too.

This week marks another one-year anniversary, too. It was the week I went off to visit S, while she was living in Ontario. I was there three nights. That was the last time I've seen S--she's back with her husband now--and so I'm feeling a little sad and nostalgic right now. Yeah, I miss her. I'd really love to see her again, even if it's just to sit and talk or share a meal together. We still write each other regularly, and I sometimes send her some of the pictures I've taken. But after being together ... just trading words does leave a little to be desired.

One more thing. When I started my efx2 blog, just as Modblog briefly sprang back to life, I took advantage of the opportunity to make a backup of my Modblog files. Alas, that before my trip to Ontario, so it didn't include the story of my visit to S (posted only to MB). I wish I had that, if only to read it again to refresh my memory. Not to be.

Since then, more things have happened--some good, some bad. Life continues. Who knows what's coming down the road? I sure don't.

But it's nice to have you guys along for the ride. You help keep me sane and help me cope with things that sometimes get the better of me. And that's what I try to do at your places ... share in your joys and sorrows, offer a piece of advice when I can come up with one. Enjoy your jokes. Help you vent ... or exult.

That's my job. That's what I do.