THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING.

Ummm, hi. Remember me?

There was a time–seems like a thousand years ago–that I was living in Spain and blogging on a daily basis. This blog racked up hundreds of posts over a period of a couple years. It was easy to do. I was living in a foreign country and immersed in an interesting culture. Largely in isolation, with nothing to do but observe carefully, sharpen my wit on an oil stone and reduce the lot into a pithy 1,000 words for the benefit of a couple hundred indulgent (and highly valued) readers. It was all very satisfying, fun and therapeutic.

When I moved back to the US in 2008, it all stopped. Life in that joint is far too busy. Too hectic. Too exhausting. When the body and mind get tired, the first thing to go is the capacity for creative thought. It’s true.

Other interests took over and competed for those precious-few morsels of time and energy. I can say with absolute certainty that it’s much easier to run 18 miles than it is to sit down and write a respectable 1,000 word blog post. The 18 miles nearly always won.

Plus, the world changed. Blogging–which so quickly and completely enraptured millions of keyboard warriors around the globe–suddenly became a dinosaur. Facebook took over and asked the question, “Who needs 1,000 words when you can get away with 250 characters?”

I, too, fell victim to its charms. Instead of spending ninety minutes carefully crafting a blog post that I could be proud of, I’d bang out a Facebook status update that I could be proud of in literally ninety seconds.

Although when Twitter appeared to save those poor souls that viewed 250 characters as the equivalent of an IronMan triathlon, I drew the line.

So…what’s the point of today’s post–the first post in nearly a year? Well, it’s three things.

Number one, I happen to be sitting in a hotel room in Spain at this very moment…with nothing to do. When I think “Spain” and “nothing to do,” I immediately thing “blog!”

Number two, I saw an uncle over the weekend that I haven’t seen in years. And he spent a few Scotch-induced minutes lamenting the death–or, at least, the hiberation–of Sal’s Virtual Tapas Bar. I could do nothing more than agree…and lament mightily myself.

And number three, I got married last weekend. It was something that I never thought I would do again. It was also something that I couldn’t imagine NOT doing with this woman. Blogging is a very narcissistic endeavor. The average blogger has to believe–rightly or wrongly–that the rest of the world gives a rat’s ass about him, his life, this thoughts and his opinions. Oftentimes this belief is misplaced. The best bloggers–through sheer hard work and hard editing–make this belief a reality. Regardless of which to those two camps I fall into, Sal’s Virtual Tapas Bar forced you to hear about a happy marriage, a fallen marriage, a long, solitary walk through the woods, a difficult parting of the ways with the country of Spain, and then three years of near-total silence. Oh yeah…and how NOT to build a smoker out of a flower pot.

I feel that I owe this update to the VTB.

And, so…I am pleased to announce to the Blogosphere that I’m married to Anne Elbaor, and I couldn’t be happier.

This was fun. I’ll be back.