G’day there!

“A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.” – Woody Allen (Annie Hall)

This post has nothing to do with sharks, nor anything to do with Woody Allen, as awesome as those two things are. I just think it’s a brilliant bit of dialogue from an equally brilliant movie, and provides for a witty analogy. Also, I think that humour is sometimes the best way to break unpleasant news, so here it is: I’m leaving. No, not the country. This site. I’m leaving this site.

But don’t panic. It’s just temporary.

I’ve decided to call it quits for the next four months and take a vacation sabbatical. That probably sounds a bit strange, as I am neither a university educator nor being paid, but it’s what I’ve chosen to call it. It sounds important, professional. But you don’t care what it’s called. What you want to know is why it’s even happening. Well, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost is that lately, I’ve really been fighting the words (in case you haven’t noticed the recent dip in content), and if the past year and a bit has taught me anything, it’s that this writing thing works best when the words flow naturally from whatever font of inspiration they flow, not in the stubborn, pig-headed pursuit of, and adherence to, a weekly publication schedule, come what may. The latter has led me astray, down an uninspired road I told myself I wouldn’t go (but then went down it anyway because I’m a man and goddamn it, I know where I’m going, thank you very much). I’ve kept at it until now to see out the year and to reach a natural stopping point, but the writing has been on the wall for a while (yes, pun intended). Things have become a bit too static, in my opinion, and perilously close to stagnant. As Woody Allen might say, we’re verging on dead shark. And I don’t want that. I want to be putting out the best product I can, and in order to do that, I need to move things forward, to change my mindset. And in order to accomplish that, I’ve concluded that I must needs step away from here.

The second reason is time. It may not be readily apparent, but this site consumes most of mine. With each passing week, I seem to be expending more and more effort (believe it or not) at the exacting of a greater and greater toll. It has basically monopolized me. There are so many other things that I could and should be doing, but which I’ve shunned to the sidelines in favour of this site. So during the next sixteen weeks, I hope to be able to refocus my efforts and channel my time, my brain space, and my creative energy into the lengthy list of other projects (personal and professional) I’ve been neglecting. Believe me, it’s a long one – grows longer by the day. And I feel that if I don’t at least attempt  to start tackling them now, then I may never get around to it.

Anyway, I know the first of May will come quickly (four months isn’t that long, when you think about it), at which time I’ll reevaluate and see where I stand. With any luck I’ll be back to posting on here, bigger and better than ever before – PEI History Guy 2.0, if you will – and will have ticked a few boxes off of my to-do list. That’s the plan, anyway. It’s always subject to change, but we’ll go with it. At the very least, it’ll provide for an interesting experiment. Maybe even a grand experiment. Who knows?

Well, no sense in prolonging it. I guess this is goodbye. But not goodbye goodbye, you know? Just goodbye for now. So please don’t cry, because crying makes me terribly uncomfortable. It does. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support to date, and to wish you all a great start to the new year. Here’s to kicking ass (oops) in 2017!

Cheers,

PEI History Guy

P.S. – I will still be open for business as usual, however. I mean hey, a man’s gotta eat.

P.P.S. – You may notice the occasional tweaking of layout over the next little while. One of my goals is to turn this thing into an actual website, as opposed to a blog masquerading as one. So don’t freak out, you’re not being haunted or anything.