I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. I’ve been extremely busy and I can’t say it’s all been work.

Though work is a huge part of my life. I write a handful of blogs and manage many more. If you’ve never seen my local tourism blog – The Gettysburg Blog – then you’ll want to check it out. I recently redesigned it so it has a much prettier face and it’s getting a lot of winks from passersby that once ignored it.

Then there’s my Internet marketing blog, where I share tips for small businesses and entrepreneurs on ways to market themselves online and talk a little bit about making money online for people who have yet to figure that part out. My latest project is the For Sale Blog – if it’s for sale, we’ll help you sell it. As an aside, I bet you can’t guess which of the three blogs get the most traffic.

While my personal side projects are all doing well, my real bread and butter is the business that I’ve been managing for the past two years. I am a partner and the operations manager, but I am about to take it over and become the CEO. We are now in the process of making that happen and, yes, that does take up a considerable amount of my time. What’s the business? Blog Content Provider.

In case you can’t tell, we are a ghostwriting company that specializes in writing blog content. I currently manage over 40 client blogs and write two of the company blogs. Yes, it’s a handful.

But not quite as much of a handful as the gratifying part of my life. My fiery redhead of a wife keeps me hopping from one foot to another, and when I’m not hopping for her I’m on all fours for our 15-month old grandson, who thinks that I am the only big person that exists. I am the answer to his every problem. The grandchildren live with us. All three of them.

The other two are no less demanding. The six year old must get to the bus that takes him to school every morning. I am the one who gets up before dawn to take care of some details related to work then get him up and ready for school and cart him to the bus stop. Before I can finish that mission, his younger sister and brother are awake asking for breakfast. Savannyah is five years old and has the disposition of a Barbie doll. Both of the boys have far more testosterone than I’ve ever had. So it wears on this old worn body and mind.

Nathen, the youngest, has had me up at 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. for the past two nights. He’s teething. And if I’m not working or thinking about work, I’m taking care of all their needs. Thursday nights is Cub Scout night for Dylan. He’s the oldest. I’ve had little time for poetry lately and while that may seem like it would be a life ending heart crusher – I thought it would be – it’s really not. When I can steal a few minutes, I spend it adding pages to World Class Poetry, reviewing a book, or working on Rumsfeld’s Sandbox.

I am often reminded, when I am stretched to these limits, of the scene in City Slickers where Billy Crystal’s character and Jack Palance’s are riding side by side on horseback. Palance, character name Curly, holds one finger in the air to represent the meaning of life. And says, “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean shit.”

Billy Crystal gets this little cocky gleam in his eye, a curious gleam with a smirk, and says, “That’s great, but what’s the one thing?”

Palance smiles and in his characteristic tough guy sensitivity points at Crystal and says, “That’s what you’ve got to figure out.”

Well, I’m still figuring it out. At one time I could tell you what that was, but life often makes different plans. I’m not giving up on ya’ll yet. I’m still hanging around. Don’t forget about me.