Welcome to my new blog. I can see that you’re excited already. Well, sit back, take a deep breath and relax. You’re making me nervous.

(There, for the first time I managed to resist adding , which I often use to underline that I was only kidding. Not only do I think I probably use those little action brackets — — too much, but I seem to be the only one still using them. So it’s probably time to put them to rest and hope my writing is clear enough to indicate when I am kidding, and such — which is most of the time. <LO.)

For a long time I didn’t think I would write a blog. For one thing, it seems somewhat clichéd with supposedly everyone and his dog writing one. (Heaven forbid, what if I can’t draw as many readers as someone’s dog?) Secondly, I, especially with online endeavours, have always preferred to be out in front of the crowd instead of following.

Even more importantly, I am not what you would call a self-starter. (Cue the sound of an engine cranking — rrrowe, rrrowe, rrrowe — without turning over. That’s an all-too-familiar sound to Canadians who try to drive in winter.) In fact I am a chronic procrastinator. For years now I’ve planned to try and overcome that defect, but just haven’t got around to it yet. So if people come to the blog again and again and find it hasn’t been updated, are they going to keep coming? Those who know me know to be patient. But I’m sure I sometimes try the patience of even my most loyal fans.

Still it is these fans, friends and family, who have been encouraging me to start a blog. My sons even noted that my posts on Facebook were rather long, often two or three paragraphs compared to everyone else’s one or two sentences. (I wonder what they would have thought of my epic-length posts on the Canada & Friends Forum on Delphi, and before that, Prodigy?)

So, here goes.