AWOL

Where have all the bloggers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the bloggers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the bloggers gone?
Taken holidays every one
When will they ever return?
When will they ever return?

(With apologies to Pete Seeger.)

When holidays hit, we flee our vocations. This, in theory, gives us more time to indulge in our avocations. So why do so many bloggers abandon their posts at holiday time? Is blogging just another vocation these bloggers escape for the holidays? If so, why do they do it at all?

Perhaps blogging is an avocation they use to take the edge off their vocations, stealing time to lose themelves in their posts. Once the holidays free them from their shackles, they don't need to steal time and therefore don't need their blogs. Then when the holidays end, and they return to their vocations, they will once more seek the solace of their avocational blogs.

For me, Outer Life is a little avocational diversion that takes the edge off life. The holidays do not free me from life, so my craving for the solace of scribbling continues unabated. That being said, the holidays do disrupt my routines, making it more likely that I'll be unable to release my pent up posts on a weekdaily basis for the next two weeks. So please do not alert the authorities if you see nothing new here for a while.

By the way, most bloggers notified their readers in advance of their plans to go AWOL for the holidays. This seems to be part of the informal but accepted etiquette of blogging. Last week I noticed that many Outer Life readers also went AWOL, making me wonder if it was something I said. Or, do my readers eagerly eye the holidays, counting the days until they can free themselves, if only for a week or two, from the daily drudge of reading Outer Life? Well, readers, next time you plan to abandon me over the holidays, would it be too much to ask for a little advance notice? If you're going to leave my posts, I'd just as soon not post them. Don't leave me tap dancing in front of an empty room.

Comments

[DarkoV]

Dear Sir,
As a regular, even faithful, I'll add, reader of your daily bon mots, I felt a pang of pain that you felt abandoned. Not pain for you, but myself. A silent visit is a visit nonetheless, right? Rather than posting some jejune comment thus ruining the effect of your cornucopiatic postings, I felt a visit, a read, and exit was enough. Your sitemeter is on and working, right? It does register the ghosts swirling in and out of Outer Life, doesn't it? My word kit is simply not as well-stocked as yours...and the holiday alcoholic tributes aren't helping.
Keep on tap-danincg; we're out here applauding, albeit very quietly.

[MFS]

I'm here: blogging and reading your blog.

[stephenesque]

Bilge! Blog daily or be damned ye snivelling sack of scurvy stuff. I am playing the Pirate King in several simultaneously produced holiday productions staged across the United States and Canada this year ... but I still update my daily run through the alphabet each day, even if it is more boring than a landlubbers conversation!
AND I have probably drunk more holiday brandy than is probably good for me!

[Monjo]

As I see it a lot of people go off on exotic Asian holidays at Christmas... and in the US (whose citizens dont have passports) people go see their families or something. That plus alcohol = no blogging. Plus I think a lot of people blog at work instead of working! No checking my IP and informing by bosses please... :)

For me, my web host has moved my site to a different serve two times in the last two weeks. A bit of fine-tuning and testing and I hope to be up-and-rolling to make a post in time for the new year.

[Waterfall]

I guess it wouldn't be a good excuse to say that I was at my parents' home in the backwoods of Cajun country and we don't have computer access so I was unable to read your blog ... nah, that wouldn't be a good excuse. It'd be a lie, too.

Sorry for being one of the many who abandoned your blog (and my own) while engaging in Christmas festivities. We're all back, I'm sure ... back at the old grindstone of the job, reading and blogging to take the edge off.

[Diana]

Me, I'm a stealth blogger. Very few real-life people know that I blog, so when I'm suddenly surrounded full-time with these people I have to play the part of a non-blogger.

(I try to sneak a few reads, though.)