Listen to “Relaunch” on Spreaker.

With this, I will slide into another of my hiatuses. Unlike the last one, which was fake (I merely shoveled in old, recycled material from decades earlier), this one is a real interruption, serving an actual professional purpose. I’m going full Hollywood makeover. I can just about guarantee you won’t believe what these two branding professionals (Erin Hall and Erin Muller) have achieved in order to show this old dog new tricks.

It will definitely be a case of old wine (or champagne, as it were) in a new bottle. That’s because what I’m writing now has been what I’ve been writing since I began almost forty years ago. The subject is “me.” It’s always been me, not because I’m a narcissist so much as I have limited range and knowledge that doesn’t extend much beyond the geography of my own age, height, weight and corrective vision. I thought this current writing iteration, begun nearly three years ago, would focus on widowhood, and how I had chosen to live with and through it by solo travel. I felt I knew two things. What I’d found with Carolyn (having lost it originally with her back in the 70s), was both a magic and miracle that we are afforded but once per lifetime, assuming you are also lucky. And then filled with the grace that comes from knowing you had it, if ever so briefly, I had truly contented myself with traveling in Carolyn’s memory, while experiencing life alone for the first time in almost forty years. I would share those experiences with you, as my new traveling companions, without all the pain and aggravation that would accrue to all of you were you actually to be traveling alongside me.

“It’s always been me, not because I’m a narcissist so much as I have limited range and knowledge that doesn’t extend much beyond the geography of my own age, height, weight and corrective vision.”

But meeting Carol, a fellow widow, through these blogs proved, like lightning, magic and miracle could strike twice. Soon readers could see, through Carol’s eye rolls and headshakes, what it would actually be like to schlep from one train and cheap hotel to another across Europe, with little in the way of itinerary planning or even a sense of direction. The pandemic brought this theme to a sudden, unexpected halt.

That leaves me for the time being with just the Reid version of The Story of Us as subject matter. Now, any continuing story with me serving as one of the main characters is going to need a lot of puffing up to sustain reader interest. And what I’ve come up with so far is a completely new and professional look to the blog, graphically and visually, thanks to a couple of seasoned professionals at BrandJunkieCreative.com and Lovisaphoto.com. As you’ll see in a couple of weeks, they’ve accomplished much more than the material they had to work with would otherwise suggest.

From then, it will be up to me to deliver the kind of writing that has drawn you to my blogs, always with the hope that soon that writing would improve in both content and coherence. Hope springs eternal, but I suspect if the travel bans aren’t lifted soon, stories about my day to day life involving adventures with toenail clippers, garlic presses, missing socks and eating on the couch (all the while Carol looks on dismissing it all as a bad dream, following a late dinner of rich food) will no doubt erode your continued indulgence.

Perhaps. See you all in a couple of weeks.