In Over My Head (Almost)

This weekend, when my girls and I were visiting family up at the lake in the Gatineau Hills, I had Lori snap a picture of me while I was swimming.

When I saw the photo later, I thought to myself, that sums up me and my life perfectly, right now: up to my neck, nearly in over my head.

This photo is now being used as my Twitter avatar.

I felt that life was getting so busy, so hectic, that I was drowning. I have more projects on the go at work that I can't work at them all at the same time. I get confused, having to try and remember which issues go with which document on which product.

At home, I have so many chores that it would take me a couple of weeks, without interruption or distraction, to get through them.

And, in whatever leisure time I have left, I have blog posts to write, photos to shoot, and novels to write.

If I'm lucky, I get five hours of sleep each night. Once in a while, I'm spoiled by seven.

I love to write and I love this blog. Though I know many of you read it on a regular and semi-regular basis (and I thank you for that), I really write this blog for myself. It's where I can dump some of the things that overflow from my brain. I find that writing these blog posts is probably more satisfying and a lot cheaper than therapy.

I promised myself, when I started blogging in 2008, that if I ever thought of this writing as work and not relaxation, that I would stop. Last week, I found that to be the case with my other blog, Beer O'Clock. And so, today, I wrote my last post on that site.

Beer O'Clock started as a regular post on The Brown Knowser a couple of years ago, but when I started reviewing more than one beer a week, I felt that those posts deserved a place of their own.

But, being busy with work, the family, and just trying to enjoy life, dammit, I felt that some nights I had to bust my ass reviewing a beer while thinking up something fun, or though-provoking, or creative on this blog.

Beer O'Clock soon seemed more like work than with enjoyment, and I felt that I had to produce a post, rather than wanting to do one.

So, goodbye to that blog.

Without repeating myself (I know many of you read both blogs: again, thank you), I've decided that if I want to share a great beer with you, I'll do so here, prefacing the title with Beer O'Clock, just as I had before I spun off my beer blog.

I hope that those of you who enjoyed my beer thoughts will continue to do so here. I hope that once I start wanting to review beer, it will no longer feel like a chore.

And I won't feel that I get in over my head with things to do.