touch me in the morning

How does that line go?

Oh, yes.

"Hey, wasn't it me who said
That nothin' good's gonna last forever?"

I think that is it. And it is true.

Nothing in our lives is permanent. We live as transients passing through an ever-changing sea of circumstances.

Two weeks ago, my blogger pal Gary Denness (The Mexile) announced an end to the blog he had been writing for over fifteen years. His reason was a familiar one. Blogging had been fun, but he now felt that writing his blog was just an exercise. A tautology.

I fully understand his reasoning. I have handed in my essay resignation at least twice now. But I am the Michael Myers of blogging. I just keep coming back.

Gary now joins a long list of fellow bloggers who no longer write for one reason or another.

I started reading Mexico blogs in 2006, I think. I had started researching places to retire. Not for myself, but for my sister-in-law. Mexico was the obvious option.

Back then, finding information on the internet was more difficult than today. I felt like Indiana Jones uncovering Maya ruins.

Somehow, I ran across my first blogger. I am not certain who it was. I suspect it was an older woman living solo in the under-developed beach town of Chacala. Andee.

I immediately liked her. She was irascible. Direct. Honest. And, it turned out, extremely hard to get to know. But, I did. She convinced me to start writing a blog about my decision-making process. Thus was born Same Life -- New Location (Mexpatriate's predecessor).

There were other bloggers in that early group. Babs. Felipe. Jennifer. Nancy. Billie. Don Cuevas. And a few others who played a big part in encouraging me not only to write, but to make the jump across the border.

Over the years, most of the bloggers I knew have stopped writing. Andee died. Some had health issues. Quite a few moved their writing to Facebook. Others simply disappeared.

We humans tend to find some comfort in routine. We like to open our Kindles to find our favorite newspaper. And we fret when it hasn't downloaded.

Every blog I have read over the years has added something to my life. And I have become friends with people whose work I have read over the past decade.

For that reason, I would be churlish to say I do not feel a touch of remorse when a fellow blogger shuts down his press. It is almost as if a part of me has slipped into a coma.

That is how I feel about Gary's departure from the blog realm. But I have a certain reassurance that he is still out there in Britain fuming about Brexit while he keeps the English train system operating.

I thank him for his service. And, for all of the other authors of blogs current and past, I thank you, as well. We are an odd little community. But, a community, nonetheless.

Now. What is the next line of that song?

Oh, yes.

"And wasn't it me who said
Let's just be glad for the time together?"

I am certainly glad for that time.