Tag: hermit

TBT^16: The Hermit’s Life

The Portly Politico2 Comments

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My mind is always a bit sharper during these cold, bitter wintry months, especially in the morning after a good cup of black coffee.  Indeed, I’m writing this post while sipping coffee in the wee hours of a very cold morning.  Dr. Wife and Nugget, the three-legged wonder dog, are still fast asleep; Murphy and I have been up for about thirty minutes.  The old girl (Murphy, not Dr. Wife) is munching on a beef rawhide in the other room as the morning light slowly pierces through the grey of January.

These early hours are about as close as I get to the hermit’s life these days.  It’s quiet to focus on writing, spending time with God, reading the Bible, and knocking out whatever little tasks need doing.

In putting together these TBT posts, it’s always fun—and occasionally cringe-inducing—to look back at posts from yesteryear.  One of the joys of maintaining a daily blog for seven years—whoa!—is the ability to explore my own, evolving time capsule.

It’s one of the things I love about WordPress.com.  It’s very easy to find my old posts and link to them instantly.  Oftentimes, I’ve forgotten about some of the topics I’ve covered over the years (in searching for “coffee” this morning, I found a post about coffee glasses).  Links are insanely easy, especially if you use the “Classic” block—still my preferred method of writing using WordPress.com:

They're like glasses, but made from coffee!

I currently use the $8/month “Premium” plan, which features the functionality I crave (for plug-ins, however, you’ll need the $25/month “Business” plan).  It boasts 13 GB a storage, which might not sound massive in our age of terabyte SSDs, but is more than ample when you’re mostly uploading pictures of your dog:

Also, WordPress.com is constantly throwing coupons at me.  It’s rare that I actually pay full-freight for my plan (which is billed annually).  For example, WordPress.com‘s sister site, Pressable, is offering 15% plans with code 2025PRESS15AFF.  I can’t speak to the functionality of Pressable firsthand, simply because I haven’t used it, but it offers hosting services for ecommerce sites, developers, and the like.

For everyday use, however, WordPress.com is fantastic.  I love the “Classic” blocks because I’m used to working with the formatting ribbon included, but the sheer number of available blocks is impressive:

So many blocks!

I literally just realized there’s a “Slideshow” block—my mind is already envisioning compelling slide decks of koi pond pics once the weather warms up!

I’ve been really pleased with the functionality of WordPress.com, which also comes with Jetpack built in.  Jetpack has functionality I’ve only begun to explore; that said, I love its Akismet anti-spam system. According to Akismet, it’s blocked 13,830 spam comments in the past six months alone—and 141,377 over seven-plus years I’ve been writing this blog:

Well, enough of my yakking.  If you’re like me, these cold, dark months are the perfect time to brew up some coffee, pet your dog, and start your own blog at WordPress.com.  Blogging has opened up so many doors for me, and the switch to WordPress.com back in Summer 2018 has been life-changing.  I may be a hermit, but I love the little community we’ve built here around TPP.  I have several readers who are bloggers, and many more who should be blogging.

I’d love to see our little community grow further.  WordPress.com makes it easy to get blogging, but I’m here to help!

With that, here is 2 January 2025’s “TBT^4: The Hermit’s Life“:

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TBT^4: The Hermit’s Life

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

The new year has dawned, and yours portly is enjoying his last day of Christmas Break before returning to work.  It’s been a busy break, full of appointments and Christmas cheer.  At the time of writing, I have (so far) avoided the annual respiratory illness that always seems to descend upon me during this dark, wintry season, although now I have surely called down this wretched curse upon my head (and lungs).

I’m looking forward to 2025—and turning 40 tomorrow.  Life is good.  God Is Good.

And I still enjoy being a hermit from time to time.

With that, here is 4 January 2024’s “TBT^2: The Hermit’s Life“:

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TBT^2: The Hermit’s Life

The Portly Politico1 Comment

Well, it’s back to classes today for yours portly, and the glorious wonder of Christmas Break has officially ended (it technically ended yesterday with a teacher workday).  Yours portly is wondering why we couldn’t have a proper Christmas Break and head back to work next Monday, but I don’t get to make those decisions.

This cold, dark time of year often makes me want to hole up with hot food and old movies.  It also seems that I come down with some manner of respiratory illness, but here’s hoping that’s not the case this year (I’m writing this post super early).  The combination means I spend a lot of time loafing around with my dog.

It’s never been clear to me if I am an extrovert or an introvert.  I am gregarious at parties and love laughing and having deep conversations.  But family members will also note that, at large gatherings, I’ll typically disappear at some point, usually to some forgotten, quiet nook of whatever house or venue we’re at, reading a book or taking a nap.  My younger brother jokes about how I manage to disappear at family get-togethers.

I’ve read that some people have a certain amount of social energy, and they need to let it restore itself.  That tracks with my experience:  after a certain point, I am ready to be home.  That said, I think my meter refills quickly—I have quick “mana regen,” in JRPG terms.  A lazy weekend is usually enough to restore me to take on another never-ending week.

Whatever the case, I think we could all use some quiet alone time now and then.

With that, here is 5 January 2023’s “TBT: The Hermit’s Life“:

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The Hermit’s Life

The Portly Politico9 Comments

During the long week between Christmas and New Year’s, I found myself struggling against some manner of illness (not The Virus, it seems, thank goodness).  I ran a low-grade fever for a couple of days, then suffered with a sore throat and some fatigue for a few days afterwards.  Fortunately, with the week off, I was able to hole up in Port Manor in Lamar, and regular reader and neighbor Bernard Fife brought me some homemade Christmas treats (and an at-home COVID-19 test, which came back negative).

I typically spend the holidays with my parents, or at least surrounded by family.  That was the case leading up to Christmas, but my mystery malady thwarted my plans to return to my childhood home.  Instead, from Tuesday (when the symptoms started coming on) through Sunday, I largely stayed home, with some occasional outings for groceries and the like as my condition began to improve (and once I realized I’d avoided the scourge of The Virus).

Needless to say, that is a lot of time at home.  I am very much a homebody, and like being there, but the demands of work, lessons, family, friends, and all the other social and professional obligations I get myself into mean I rarely get days alone at home.

Be careful what you wish for:  I had six days at home thanks to illness.  Had it not been for being sick, though, it would have been glorious.  Even so, it was pretty great.

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