So there I was sitting in the living room while pink panther cartoons played quietly in the background. I broke down and updated my blog to the new blogger version. Next thing I knew I got stuck in an update loop and had to start adding labels to everything. It’s all so mad, so very mad. But I think I have like 100 done.

Which brings me to my milestone. This totally un-educational and highly un-poetic post is number 501 of the Kayak Wisconsin Blog I Launched in December of 2004, like so many others with absolutely no clue why I was doing it. 501. . . no wonder no one can find anything! In those almost 2 years of almost daily posts I’ve gone from abusing myself to the strange privilege of being abused by expedition kayakers the world over. As in, “Derrick, you wanker I already told you I’m only talking to Wenley” or “If you compare me to Peter O’Tool again I’m going to fly over there and beat you bloody with a Werner!!” Ah, life is good!

Well, it’s probobly not quite like that. Over the last couple years I’ve written posts on all sorts of skill work, news about a great many spectacular expeditions, and exercised my minds mad recesses and some how managed (I hope) to keep it all loosely tied together. Quite a task I can tell you. I’m always wondering, “Did I write about that before?”, “Is this correct?”, “Who am I to make this judgment?”, “What the hell am I going to write about tomorrow?” and a million other concerns that flow through your brain when you know you’ve got some hundreds of strangers thumbing through your blogging quagmire on any given day. Often when I look at the numbers I start feeling like I’m going to hyperventilate. I wonder, “how do I live up to this?” then I take my tablets and within an hour I’m thinking, “Hey, it’s my damn blog!!!!”. Ahhh, medication!

I am really hoping the labels work for you. Early on I wrote so much about general kayak skills and all that information is here. It’s just back a bit. I don’t want to get repetitive and write repeated posts about draws, but to be sure that information is here. Hopefully the labels will help new folks find them. I’ve also found that if I go to Google and search “kayakwisconsin” then add what ever I’m looking for on the end i.e., “kayakwisconsin tow ropes”, I can almost always find those posts. In addition I built a categories section to again, help you find those old posts. And even my crazy tirades if you’re so inclined to find them. . .

So how do we travel through the next 500 posts? Hell if I know, but with your input and the kindness of strangers we’ll keep plugging along. Maybe once in awhile we’ll find something interesting. These days I just hope I’ve found a good groove. I know when I get boring you will just stop coming. We have so many great writers out there. Some days I’d rather read their blogs too. But I’m glad you’re here and reading along. That in itself is quite a gift. I’m honored. Thank you.

For my part I’ll carry over a bit more wood for the fire and do my best to just keep telling stories. . .