10 Years of Zulu Delta 45

“WHAT!!!! 10 YEARS!” How the heck can that be?”

I don’t know. Nobody is more surprised than me.

The other day I was sitting around the boardroom at Zulu Delta 45 Headquarters during a staff meeting only seconds from escaping the area and another despised staff meeting. When my lead editor asked if there was any new business to discuss, the room went silent and the cue was given to prepare to stand and make our escape; me especially. I wanted to grab one of my bikes and head down to the marina and spend some quality time aboard the corporate yacht (moored near the corporate jet). Suddenly, one of the “unknown interns” slouching in the corner stood up and posed the question; “what blog will we be publishing to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Zulu Delta 45?”

OK, let’s sit again, take a deep breath, regain our composure, and decide what is the most outrageous and unbelievable part of the above paragraph. Alright, alright, we all know….it’s the part where we acknowledge that I have been publishing Zulu Delta for 10 years!!!! Yes, there may be some other “questionable” statements there, but as a writer, I am only obligated to write; there’s no rule that says it has to be true (Editor’s Note……”Yes, Mr. Delta; we call that concept fiction. If you were half the writer you claim to be, you would know that!”).

Regardless…….recently, I was using the search engine feature on the homepage of Zulu Delta 45 when I “off-mindedly” gazed several inches below the search block and glimpsed the archive dates for the blog site. There it was; the archive dates indicated that October, 2022 was 10 years later than October 2012; when the first blog appeared. The fact completely surprised me. It’s not like it was hidden, it just wasn’t “one of those things” I keep track of.

I’m not typically a “milestone man,” but I did decide that 10 years at this venture deserved some more recognition, so let’s have it.

Because I do love lists, I’d like to list a few things about what this blog has meant to me. Some of these have appeared throughout other blogs.

One of the things I am most proud of, is actually starting the blog site itself. I had been throwing the idea around my head for a while about writing. A book (in the works), writing for a magazine, a movie script, some graffiti. “Someday Never Comes,” and “Tempus Fugit,” which is Latin (a reoccurring comic language in this blog) meaning Time Flies. We all have a hard time allocating our attention resources in the modern busy world, so to me, it sometimes feels like a moral victory to steal back my own time from life and accomplish something I said I would do.

I am grateful for the many people who have read these blogs, commented, liked, and continue to support my literary efforts. I appreciate my most loyal readers, Anno Domini, Martha, Gus, John and Wina. I also appreciate my followers that constantly read but don’t always comment on the blog itself; Step and Maura, as well as Rob and Laura Petrie. A special note goes out to Martha Reynolds https://marthareynoldswrites.com/ who suggested to Anno Domini who passed the suggestion to me, to participate in my first “Blogging From A-Z Challenge.” A large participant of my blog site.

I am proud of the strides I have made to improve my grammar, writing, and spelling skills. I’m sure if anyone goes back through all my blogs you may find deficiencies in all these areas, but even years later, when I sometimes re-read an older blog I find errors and correct them. Despite occasional references to “an editor,” I have to do all of it on my own. Anyone who writes for any reason knows that computer spell checkers and grammar editors are not always reliable or accurate to the piece at hand. If I really want to find all the spelling and grammar mistakes I missed proof reading a blog 72 times at 3 A.M, all I have to do is click the WordPress “Publish” button and “send” the blog out to the entire known Universe, and have my errors miraculously appear for full ridicule! It’s humbling. Regardless, I look forward to continued improvement.

I constantly appreciate and find it amusing to see all the countries in the World that somehow discover my blogs. It may be coincidental, or by mistake, or people may just be clicking on a Tag or Link within my website, but they are still being redirected to ZD45, and that’s just so fun and exciting. The United States, New Zealand, China, Kazakhstan, Seychelles and even Mozambique where couples dance cheek to cheek (Bob Dylan told “us” this).

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Besides the time to write, and far more time to edit each blog, I’m not sure most people realize how much time goes into the research of so many blogs. I don’t really mind, because I often feel like ZD45 is my own personal encyclopedia of knowledge. Bits of my own life views thrown in with facts and figures from Wikipedia, the World Wide Web, Google Maps, and most important; “Observations Of An Un-observing World.” In general, I don’t mind the time, because if nobody ever read one blog, I am thrilled by all the knowledge I have gained and the wonderful amount of things I have learned.

I can’t tell you how many times I have sat down at my desk and began to write and had no idea how the blog would “write-out” or end. I’m sure there are critics out there who will point out that this statement is an absolute testament to the insane and “babbling scribble” of my blog site, but in the end……..I just don’t care. I love to write it and often can’t wait to see how it ends.

I am inspired and quite excited that writing this blog has given me the motivation, desire, and know-how to publish a second blog; Cold Bike Fusion https://coldbikefusion.net/ I know that material is not for everyone, but it also doubles as a travel blog, humor site, and gives me the opportunity and space to go off on adjacent subjects. Mmmmmmhhhh, that sounds familiar?

Finally (Yeah, right Zulu…), recently in the news there has been a lot of articles about people who have no “internal dialogue” or monologue within themselves. We’re not talking about people who “hear voices” telling them to act out and do violent and cruel things. We’re talking about the everyday voices in your head that speak, debate, challenge, and confuse you; guiding you, advising you, and enabling you.

I am not one of those people.

As noted in this blog, there seems to be billions of ideas going through my head all the time. Sometimes it’s exhausting. I don’t know how my mind compares to others, but I find that using this blog to write, analyze, learn, and categorize, is comforting. At times it distracts my “stream of consciousness,” and allows me to focus on less things at once; soothing, and taming the chaos in my head. This chaos is not necessarily bad or unproductive, but sometimes its too much at once.

I can’t wait to find out how the next 10 years will work out. Maybe to add to the celebration, I’ll publish a blog containing the long-overdue and COMPLETE NON-FICTIONAL (Hahahahaha) “Zulu’s Mailbox.”

So, again, thank you, everyone who has been reading this blog and will continue to read it.

Your Friend,

Zulu Delta