What's a blog?

Ah, ya just gotta love a question like that, don't ya?  Well, here's how the question came wingin' my way last night.  Out of the clear blue, my cell phone rang pretty late in the evening.  Neither of us recognized the Arizona number so we didn't answer it.  Lo and behold, when we read the transcribed message in our Google Voice, it turned out to be Lost Lost and Newly Found Bill Cook himself! (Read this post to refresh yourself on Bill.)  WOW, what can we say?  It was great to hear Ol' Bill's always cheery voice.  And it was great to get caught up on All Thing's Bill.  One day a couple of years ago, as Bill described it, he'd had enough and he simply packed up and disappeared into the Far East (of Arizona, that is).  He's leading a happy, comfortable life there.  His email address sums up his situation.  The address is "duncanite853."  Naturally, there's a story behind an email address like that.  Bill now lives in Duncan, Arizona, hence the "duncanite" part.  The day he moved there he went to the small town's Manager and asked what the population was.  The guy told him is was 852.  So, Bill declared himself #853 and that's how he coined his email address.

Well, anyway, we were a chattering back and forth and Bill asked what we'd been up to and were we were doing and so forth.  I said, "Well, Bill everything we do is on our blog."  There was a pause on the other end of the line and then Bill said, "John I hate to ask a dumb question, but what's a blog?"  Ah, Bill!  Ya dun GOOD!

That's one of the many beauties of Bill Cook.  He can always find a way to detach himself from the mundane world as we know it and find great peace in the simple things of life.  He probably oughta give seminars on how to forget all of the social networking tools that are so red hot in today's go-go, plugged-in online society.
Bill is definitely living in BFD Time.  What's BFD,John?  Well, it doesn't mean what you THINK it means--it means "Before Facebook Daze."  It's kind of like how people use the letters "BC," if you get my drift.

I tried to give a capsule summary of what a blog is but I realized it was impossible so I just said I would send it to him.  It might be awhile before he sees it as his internet connection out there in BFD Duncan is real sketchy and Bill says it might only work "when the wind blows right" for maybe 10-15 minutes a day.  That suits Bill just fine.

Bill said he came back to the Verde Valley for a funeral the other day but couldn't tolerate the crowds and the traffic and left that afternoon.  It sounds to me like Bill has finally found his true niche in life.  He sounds happier than I can ever recall, much more relaxed and totally unstressed.  Way to go, Bill!  Bill says he's going to send some pictures and, when the wind blows right and they show up, we will put them into a special slideshow celebrating Bill's new life as Duncanite #853.

Happy Trails, Bill, we're danged proud of you!

Cheers, jp