Surprise!

Hi. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Robert. This is my blog, 26th Parallel. Thanks for stopping by.

It's been a while since I've posted here, thus the "re-intro". What was a work and life-induced break turned into a self-imposed 2-week-plus hiatus of sorts. Heck, I've barely checked my e-mail in that time. Call off the hounds. I'm here and in one piece.

Although I could say that I missed blogging, I would be lying. I could say I was too busy to miss it, but that would only be partially true. Fact is, the break made me realize that I don't really miss blogging. Not that I no longer have a desire to blog, but that I no longer feel the need to always be engaged in the blogosphere in order to get my thoughts out. In many ways, it's been pretty liberating. As I've done in the past, I'll come back and post my thoughts on a variety of issues, but at least for the time being I'm content to just sit back and let things happen without a compelling urge to have to write about it. I'll still write, but on my schedule, not as a duty of sorts. I have to admit that's what blogging started to feel like: a duty.

Quite simply, after several days of stressful work (good stress, but stress nevertheless), the last thing I want to have to worry about is to push a post across, especially when I don't have the time or energy to write a post that is coherent and somewhat based on reality. I have a hard enough time doing that when I'm rested.

Here are some people/things that were happy to see me take a break from blogging:

- The family
- The dog
- The pool
- The yard
- My Guitar Hero skills

Actually, I don't have a dog (yet) and my Guitar Hero skills are still developing, but you get the point.

Anyway, a Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!