Pat, I'd like to buy a vowel. A lot of them. In bulk, please.

I should take vacations. Not vacations from work, although I have do have too much time off left to use. I should occasionally take an announced vacation here. It would be more courteous to those of you who stop by here, and it would give my brain a chance to recharge now and then. I've been pretty quiet for the last week because I frankly haven't had much to say. I take that back. I've had plenty to say, but when I'd go to say it, I felt like I'd said it before sometime during the two plus years of this site. If I had something that felt fresh, during my research I'd find that the news cycle moved so fast that three people had already said what I had planned on writing. I think that every blogger that really sticks with it for the long haul hits patches like this, so I'm not saying anything unique here. The challenge, which I've not found a suitable answer to yet, is how to break out of it quickly. Stretches like this make me respect guys like former Chicago columnist Mike Royko. For a number years, he pumped out five columns a week. That's a lot of material, and pretty damn impressive.