Blogging ennui.....?

I have been a very bad blogger lately. And I relate this to being a very bad Hometown Tourist as well. But, realizing you have a problem is the first step toward recovery, right? And I've been doing some thinking about why this has come about.

[in the meantime, I've dotted this post with some select photos from my 2009 travels, to entertain my readers and—hopefully—to get me back on track]

Classes start today at St. Mary's, bringing to an end a long holiday break that saw me

1. staying home a lot and
   
2. working very hard on my London photo project

These are two reasons for my lack of material for, and even lack of interest in, Hometown-Touristing. Staying at home means catching few interesting sights around the city to inspire blog posts. And, perhaps more importantly, my head—and heart—have been in London, rather than here at home.

I've realized—duh!—pretty clearly that you have to be open to current experience to be a good tourist or a good traveler, whether your current experience is happening around the house or on the other side of the world. And my intense concentration on London has closed off my eyes and ears to what's going on here.

Two examples:

1. I intended, at the beginning of the holiday season, to make a trip downtown so that I could take a photo like this one of our lovely Riverwalk at Christmastime and show you how San Antonio dresses up for the season. But I just never managed to get downtown. (Thanks to nanpalmero's Flickr photostream for this great picture.)
2. When I did have an errand last week that took me to a part of town I don't usually frequent, I could have gotten some neat photos and shown you some of my hometown's diversity. But I forgot to take my camera with me! If I had been in proper Hometown Tourist mode, that never would have happened.

So. Now that I'm back in the working world (more practice for retirement will have to come this summer) I should see more things around town to inspire me to write. Plus, my globe-trotting son and daughter-in-law are coming to town for an indefinite stay starting next week. I'm sure they'll get me out and about to new places and new experiences.

AND, my London photos are almost all done! Web pages need proofing, and some technical difficulties with Flickr are slowing down the process, but the end is in sight! So hopefully this project, fun as it is, will be bogging me down less and less as 2010 progresses.