Thirteen Reasons I Haven't Done a Thursday Thirteen

Here I am!!!

After an extensive and unplanned delay, I'm back on the T13 loop! It was never my intention to take this little "holiday", but there were a number of reasons I couldn't manage posts in a timely manner.

Does that sound like a lead-in to you? It sure does to me!

So please, allow me to present to you

13 Reasons I Haven't Done a Thursday Thirteen

This kitty was NOT the actual problem.

1) Internet issues. I stayed with my mother, and while she now has Hughes Net, the bandwidth allowance is only 200MB a DAY - so that pretty well knocked out any uploading, extensive writing or researching I might have done for the T13 posts over the summer.

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The hubby's and my hotel room in Asheville, NC.

2) Traveling. I've been On-the-go an awful lot this summer, which hasn't quite lent itself to doing any posts.

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REWARD: DEAD OR ALIVE

3) Visiting friends. I spent a lot of time hanging out with my friends back home. Not much time left over to spend on the 'net as a result!

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Le RAWR!!!

4) Le Tour de France.
Do I really need to explain this one? Suffice it to say that getting up at six a.m. (on several occasions) pretty well knocked out any blogging intentions...

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5) Promotion! If I was online at all, chances are it was to do some promotion for my work. Otherwise, it was hard to justify the bandwidth usage.

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My cousin and two of the raccoons in question.

6) Visiting family. Remember that travel I mentioned? Yeah, quite a lot of it was in order to see family members from Florida to Kentucky.

And let's face it, if the choice is between writing a blog or watching your cousin hand-feed a wild raccoon and her kits, which are you gonna choose?

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This picture is proof that I had to walk outdoors at some point.

7) Exercising. Believe it or not. I was on a treadmill a good deal of the summer. Well, for part of many of the summer days, anyway.

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Does this coat make me look...Italian?

8) Shopping. I didn't do as much this year as I normally do, but shopping actually took up a fair amount of time this summer - especially once Alle joined me.

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He was actually yawning, btw.

9) Taking pictures. I spent some time this summer taking photos, like this gem here. This is my mother's kitty, Abel, doing his impersonation of the UK Wildcat. He's got talent!

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Some writing I enjoyed more than other writing...

10) Writing! No, really! Okay, not as much as I'd have liked, but I did get some writing done.

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Pretty, pretty picture...

11) Doing research. Naturally, along with watching TdF coverage (and Tour de Suisse, and International Criterium, and Vuelta a Espana coverage) on TV, I found reading material on cycling to enrich my writing.

And I looked at the pretty, pretty pictures.

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12) Answering "fan mail". Okay, calling it "fan mail" might be my ego raging out of control, but I got a few very nice messages over the summer from readers who are very interested in getting their hands on a copy of 27 Stages as soon as it's out there. *gulp* I'd better get to work on that...

13) Resting. I needed a lot of rest - first, when I arrived, to get over the jetlag. Then I needed to rest after jumping into driving straightaway. Then after Le Tour started, I needed to recover from marathon viewing sessions. Frankly, there were, indeed, times when my creative juices seemed completely tapped out.

But they're back, methinks...

And there you have 13 Reasons I Haven't Done a Thursday Thirteen.













I hope to start posting regularly, now.






















After all...















I don't want to neglect my readership, and hey:


















It's great to be back!

Greg Van Avermaet - cyclist

Ciao for now!