Happy anniversary to the blog

Back when I worked for the afternoon Rochester Times-Union we would often make people scratch their heads by running stories a little bit in advance of anniversaries, like four years and 11 months after Attica, nine years, 11 months and six days after that city's riots, etc.

The reason was since we were competing with the morning Democrat and Chronicle, we wanted to be first with our story. If we waited for the actual anniversary, we would more than likely get scooped - the worst sin in a competitive news environment.

Although you may have noticed that this blog doesn't have any competition (can't imagine why) old habits die hard.

That's why today I'm marking my 290th blog entry since we started last June and the soon-to-be (Sunday) the 10-month anniversary of my cancer surgery.

I don't mean "we'' in an editorial sense. The blog was Ellen's idea, and she and Janice wrote the first several entries when I was still in the hospital as by far the most efficient way to keep people up with how I was doing.

Then when I started to feel a little better, I dictated the entries to one of them, and finally took off the training wheels shortly after I got home in early July and began to write them myself. I remember on our cruise last January that dictating the blog to one of them was one of the highlights of the day.

Since June, the blog has become, besides family and friends, my most reliable tool for dealing with the ups and downs of the whole experience - letting me enjoy the good moments more and helping me over the rough stretches.

I hope to have many more real anniversaries of the blog to celebrate.