My blogging timeliness, or lack thereof

I have moaned and whined on this blog before about getting behind in my posting and in visiting my favorite blogs. Well, I was tempted to fret over my failure to post about Father’s Day on Father’s Day.

Although it does take me longer and is a bit more difficult to post than it was before my stroke two years ago, my pattern of missing self-imposed blogging deadlines has been present ever since I started blogging in November 2009.

Missing those deadlines has caused me more angst than I care to admit, but I think I am on the way to breaking that particular pattern. Oh, I am certain I will continue to set up deadlines for myself and miss them. But I am steadily beginning to conquer the dismals and the blogging paralysis that used to accompany the missed deadlines.

The example of our daughter-in-law Katie and her blog The Daily Skup have been largely responsible for the change. Katie is one super busy wife, mom, daughter, granddaughter and friend. Her circle of extended family and friends is large, close and comes with abundant can’t-miss celebrations and activities.

That means the events and observations she is documenting during her children’s growing up years are pretty much non-stop and accompanied with tons of photos that she and our son take.

There are times when Katie simply has to choose to let her blogging slide while she takes care of responsibilities, sees to the health and well-being of her family or . . . gasp, gets some shut-eye.

She said she makes a few notes in those busiest of times, keeps photo files in chronological order, and eventually finds some blocks of time to post. I have devoured her recent “catch-up” posts of photos and commentary on events from December 2012 to February 2013 as well as the occasional current updates on her little ones.

She slips those prompt reports in for the benefit of me and other out-of-town relatives, friends and fans of Molly Kate and Walker. Her ultimate goal is to turn the blog into a series of hardcover books of memories for her children.

It dawned on me that my purpose for Retirement Daze is similar--to remember impressions and experiences from this stage in my life.

I’m retired, and I have enjoyed the freedom of spontaneity that has come with retirement. That freedom frequently interferes with posting on a schedule that my previous experience had programmed me to think of as the “right” time to publish.

But the reality is that I no longer work for a newspaper with tight deadlines. And I no longer work for an educational and research institution with multiple overlapping deadlines.

I have begun to realize that I also no longer have to be ruled by the idea that old news is no news. In retirement I am now dealing with memories, not news. The shelf life is longer.

After several false starts, I am now following Katie’s example. Tuesday I posted some Father’s Day observations--two days past the day of that observation.

Now if I could just follow the example of one of my other daughter-n-law’s admirable practices. She is the queen of prompt and seemingly painless decluttering.

I am not giving up hope. But regrettably, I would rather blog about fighting clutter on the home front than take action. I know I can change.

But maybe later. There are some blogs I want to visit right now.