I was a 39 on this day in 2007, when I started this blog. 39! I hardly remember being that age. But I clearly remember the early days of this blog.
My son Damion made the photo of me in my denim jacket. I chaperoned his school field trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We ate box lunches at picnic tables on the grounds. Damion picked up my camera and made this terrific photograph of me.
In 2007, Damion was 10. Now he’s 26! His brother Garrett is 23. I blogged all through their adolescence, and then their university years. Now they’re independent adults, and I’m still blogging.
For years I never used to give any of my children’s names or show photos of them here. I was concerned about their privacy. That ended when they became adults. A lot of other things have changed in my life and on this blog over the years. In 2007 I lived in a sprawling four-bedroom ranch that my church owned. They often let people in transition live in it rent free, and I was definitely in transition as I was freshly divorced. I couldn’t afford high-speed internet, but I had a landline phone and my computer had a modem card in it. I signed up for America Online and then signed up for a free WordPress.com account at jimgrey.wordpress.com. I wrote the first six months of this blog on dial-up Internet!
At first, I posted here only when I had something to say. That happened 35 times in 2007 and 95 times in 2008. I published the minute I finished writing a post, whether it was 7:45 am on a Monday or 8:30 pm on a Thursday. In April of 2009 I started posting regularly on Monday and Thursday, and scheduled posts in advance to appear at various times in the wee hours of the morning. In October of 2010 I started scheduling posts to always appear at 5 am Eastern time.
In October of 2011 I changed this blog’s address to what it is now, blog.jimgrey.net. Then in September of 2012 I started publishing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Finally, in July of 2014 I started publishing six days a week, Monday through Saturday. I started that schedule with the very first Recommended Reading post, which you can read here. I’m surprised by how popular this weekly feature has become!
I published articles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and single photographs on Tuesday and Thursday. In 2022 I finally changed that, and started slotting particular kinds of posts on particular days. I haven’t been slavish to it, but generally it’s been:
- Monday: Gear reviews, film reviews, and film photography in general
- Tuesday: Essays, personal stories, and faith.
- Wednesday: In 2022, I posted a bunch of photos of the same subject, such as 15 hubcaps. This year I’ve been writing essays and stories about a single photograph.
- Thusday: History and preservation.
- Friday: Road trips.
I’ve updated this blog’s look and feel three times since I created it. That always involved choosing a new theme. My blog became more and more about my photography in its early years, so in March of 2014 I switched to a theme that let me display my photos larger. That theme had a lot of bugs, and I was tired of opening support cases with WordPress.com, so in December of 2015 I switched themes again. I kept it until just a few weeks ago when I changed themes yet again.
Meanwhile, my life continued full force. I moved out of the parsonage and bought a house. My kids grew up and became independent. I remarried and gained four more stepchildren. I sold that house and moved in with my wife. I progressed in my software-development career from Manager of Quality Assurance, to Director of Quality Assurance, to Director of Engineering, with a few bumps and scrapes along the way. We’ve had great joys, including seeing Damion and Garrett graduate university, and trips to Ireland and Denmark. But we’ve also had a lot of tragedy and loss, including the death of our daughter-in-law, Margaret’s mom, my father, my oldest child, and finally my mother.
Through it all, I’ve persisted in publishing this blog. At first, it brought me a feeling of connection with the world at a very difficult and lonely time in my life. Little by little, this blog found an audience, and that feeling of connection only grew. That’s why I persist.
To get Down the Road in your inbox or reader six days a week, click here to subscribe!
To get my newsletter with previews of what I’m working on, click here to subscribe!
