A couple of weeks ago, I hit another milestone in my journey here. I made it to the nine-year mark here at the newspaper. Nine years of our weekly visits have certainly flown by. Over these nine years, I have heard many nice comments from many of y’all who have told me you enjoy our weekly visits. I am grateful and humbled by all the comments. There have been a few bumps and broken bones along the way, but I have to say, honestly, that I have enjoyed the journey so far.
Only the Lord above knows how long I will be able to remain on this journey. I often joke that I will probably call in sick the morning of my funeral. Hopefully, that won’t happen for a long time. I’m doing my best to delay that as long as I can. I enjoy it here, and I have a lot more I want to accomplish. I have been honored to receive many awards from the Florida Press Association and I’m humbled and honored to have done so, but that Pulitzer still eludes me. I still have six more states to visit in order to have hit all 50 states (regardless of what some people say, airports do count). That black belt in karate is probably not in the cards any longer, but you never know. When I was just a kid, I always wanted a Jaguar sports car. My uncle took me to a Jaguar dealership in Tampa, and I saw a neat sports car there and immediately determined that I wanted to have one, one day; again, you never know. Something else I want to do before they start shoveling dirt on me is to write a book. My idea is to publish a collection of our most memorable visits. I’ve often joked that I was going to do that and then live off the royalties from the book sales. Hey, it could happen. That Erma Bombeck lady did okay with basically the same idea.