One Post, Five Topics, Twelve Months, And A Meeting

Earlier today I looked up from whatever it is that my employer is paying me to do and noticed that I've unknowingly stumbled over the one-year anniversary of the birth of this very blog. Happy Berkshire to Sense, retroactive to this last October 4th.

Fifty-three posts published, six posts abandoned. Four hundred twenty-two comments, followed by three hundred fifty-one quizzical expressions after reading said comments. Two dozen times Tara's said "You should blog about that," and twenty-two times I responded by saying, "Eh, get your own blog."

Three times I've been recognized as "the Berkshire Sense guy". Eight thousand unique visitors, about seven blog-related tension headaches, an off-year election, and one 2576-square-foot fixer-upper with a Honda-shaped hole in the porch later, I'm giving myself props for not bailing on you, my eight or ten loyal readers and close family members. Go, me.

So let me take this opportunity to match some of the odd socks in the big old bag of "you should blog about that" I have lying around:

Thanks to Glenn Drohan of the North Adams Transcript for being so desperate for content as to publish my previous post about refinishing our floor in print format. I'm not saying that there are many slow news days up here, but I used to read the New York Daily News pretty regularly and I don't recall that many stories about Joey Bagodonuts from Astoria installing a low-flow shower head in his guest bathroom. I suppose that's the price you pay for not getting to write about the latest set of indicted officials.

Speaking of officials, several months ago I was appointed an alternate member of the City's Zoning Board of Appeals. This has been a great introduction to public service as well as a fascinating study of minutiae tucked within the City Zoning Ordinance. Did you know, for instance, that if you want to keep chickens in North Adams, your lot needs to be at least two acres? In case you had ever wondered, this is probably why you see so few chickens wandering around town.

And speaking of service, Tara and I were tapped on the shoulder and asked if we could help host the Drinking Liberally chapter meetings here in North Adams. So, we're calling the next meeting, which is this coming Thursday, 10/11, at 6pm, at Cafe Latino in the MassMOCA complex, and each 2nd Thursday of the month thereafter. Why should you come? Three words: four-dollar margaritas. That, and lively political discussion among friendly voters and other noters, ranging from the slightly hippie to the outright dippie. All are welcome, provided you're 21 and have an opinion. No cover charge. Argumentative righties welcome, but please leave your Dick Cheney model shotgun in the car; cheap shots or tequila shots only, please.

Speaking of politics, there's an election going on, isn't there? I'd like to invite any candidate to come down to Latino on Thursday to stump. There should be low turnout for this election coming up, so a few influential handshakes and campaign platform summaries may just put a bubble candidate over the top here. So someone tell Lisa Blackmer or Howard D'Amico that they should show up and tell a dozen or twenty registered voters why we should vote for them. And that goes fer the rest of ya, as well.

So I look forward to a new year of doing whatever it is that I'm doing here. I want to thank my family and friends, and especially the small but feisty Berkshire County blogging community, for all your acceptance and support. If it weren't for you, I would just be another lone bloviating know-it-all with his own blog. Instead, I am one of several bloviating know-it-alls with my own blog. Fine company to be in as we head towards the beginning of another successful and happy year.