Making corrections…Staying on track…Self discipline…

Yes, I particularly relate to the portion that says, “despite temptations to abandon it.”

Making corrections on over 3100 posts is definitely a daunting task, in many ways seeming impossible due to life’s distractions. It requires every morsel of self discipline I can muster. Now that I narrowed it down to doing only 10 posts per day, it seems more manageable. But still, it will take me until the end of the year whereby, after today, I’ll still have 1860 posts left to do. (I have been working backwards from the newest to the oldest posts).

If I can stick with the 10 posts per day, its possible I could be done in 186 days which would take me to October 22, 2021. But, most certainly, there will be days I won’t do any, such as when we’re going to Kruger, socializing during the day, or preparing for food for dinner guests. I will make every effort not to “take a day off” without a good reason or that, like any self-disciplinary behavior, could send me down a rabbit hole. You know how that goes.

Most likely, I won’t be done until the end of 2021 which is 256 days from today, leaving me a total of 70 days to skip it for good reason.. I wish I could say I thoroughly enjoy this task and at times I do, when reading the old posts and am reminded of how much fun we’ve had, how much we’ve learned and how this exquisite experience has changed us in ways that would never have been possible in our old lives.

Often I laugh at my errors, including typos, misspelling, and incorrect use of the English language. Sometimes, I even cringe over an error that has “sat” there for years with readers from all over the world also cringing over my “faux pas.” None of those readers will go back and see I’ve finally seen and corrected my erroneous ways.

Often, it’s missing a period, a misplaced or missing comma or other inadequate punctuation. Most often, I am correcting the two spaces between sentences to change it to one space, a change in writing procedure since we first began. In school, a zillion moons ago, we were taught to use two spaces between sentences in the same paragraph, not one. I am certain that I am missing some of those space corrections as I go through the posts once again.

In some cases, I find photos of various maps and other copied images used to illustrate a point, are no longer available. I wish I could say I am replacing all of those, but I am not. It’s too time-consuming. In most cases, I delete the entry entirely. In other situations, I may leave the caption which explains “what” was there, indicating it is not being replaced. So it goes.

I have no doubt that our pickier readers could go through those I’ve corrected and find more errors. Fine. Please don’t point them out to me. Doing so could easily make this task a further annoyance, much more than it is now. I dislike using the phrase, “I did the best that I could,” when I’ve often considered that comment an excuse for not trying harder, a rationalization, a means to bypass responsibility, especially in regards to my own behavior, not so much that of others.

Sure, I could say, “Gee, I’ve been writing an essay, the equivalent of a newspaper article, 365 days a year for the past over eight years. I’m entitled to making some errors.” However, if I truly felt that way, which I don’t,  I wouldn’t be going back and making these corrections. I’d let it go.

In revealing one’s thoughts, one’s dreams, one’s hopes, one’s foibles and one’s inequities, day after day, it’s easy to miss a word, a comma, or a period. In sharing one’s adventures, one’s life changing experiences, one’s observation of the wonders of life around the world, it’s easy to miss a word, a comma, or a period.

Without a doubt, the new posts I’m preparing now, yesterday, last month, a year ago and more, will require this similar attention at some point. Oh, well, I can’t think about that right now.

Happy day!

Photo from one year ago today, April 19, 2020:

We had an opportunity to interact with a cheetah at the wildlife rehabilitation center eight years ago.. The particular cheetah wouldn’t ever be able to return to the wild due to injuries sustained in the wild for which he was rescued. For the year ago post, please click here.