All good things must come to an end

What a year ;-)

I started this blog on February 10th, 2013, Chinese New Year and beginning of the Year of the Snake.   

I wonder what the year of the Horse will bring ;-)

But now the Year of the Horse has arrived (or rather is 1/3 gone), I started to wonder whether it was time for this personal account of my Year of the Snake to retire.  It was a spectacular year for me and I did
 'see things I thought I'd never ever see'.












The original intent behind this blog was to create a kind of personal diary. I felt that I wanted to make my Year of the Snake a special and memorable year, and I wanted to make sure that I could remember it well 10 years after.  I accepted the fact that I would have to keep some kind of diary for this year after trying and failing to remember in which cities I spent the nights on my motorcycle trip through the western US (Berkeley through Yosemite & Death Valley to Las Vegas and then on to Santa Fe & Los Alamos and back to Vancouver through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, etc) in the 90s. While some locations are easily remembered, others are lost in the haze of the years, as is the year of that trip ;-(  All I know is that it was maybe a year after Jurassic Park started playing in the theatres (1993).  Alan, in what year did that red (?) minivan overtake me on a motorcycle on a highway in New Mexico?

And everyone who has ever tried to find a particular photograph (of the printed variety) filed or stashed away in those Drugstore envelopes in some shoe box at the back of some drawer (a dreadful task in an over-stuffed storage locker) will instantly recognize the brilliance of storing the pictures together with the written memories, i.e. in a blog.

But this 'personal diary' has taken on a life of its own, in directions I could never have foreseen.. Over this year, this blog has picked up readers among my family, friends, associates, and even people I have never heard of. While in the beginning I just wrote stuff right from the top of my head (gut feelings spilling onto electronic paper), I noticed over time that I was paying more and more attention to being careful not to step onto anyone's toes.  This trend would only continue as this blog would pick up more readers in the future.  But that also means that either I have to keep stepping on the toes of people  (Hey, I AM AN OPINIONATED BASTARD ;-), or that this blog would turn into a 'pretty pictures blog', something I feel has started to happen already. The primary raison d'etre for this blog is its use as a vehicle for me to express my feelings to myself. Through recent months, I have noticed that this blog has lost that functionality for me.  And I don't want to be in the business of publishing a coffee-table book.  
But I do want to thank everyone who ever read this blog. I was surprised, flattered, and most importantly honoured to have all you as readers who thought that this was worth your time!

But I am taking this Year of the Horse as a signal to end this blog (for now). I am grateful to all of you who accompanied me through the Year of the Snake and I maybe this blog has managed to add just a tiny touch of something positive to your life. That I would like.  

Time to go