I often forget, as I live my life through a constant stream of updates to Facebook and Twitter, that I have a blog. And it’s really a platform that I shouldn’t ignore. So often I get the itch for a long-winded diatribe on a particular topic, but end up simply regurgitating contracted thoughts in 140 characters via an easily consumable media instead. My life via tiny little Facebook and Twitter updates has caused the reflection of my experiences to become really nothing more than comically shortened amorphisms of what those experiences truly were. The question is: can I delight in that? Well, certainly. But I doubt anyone else can.

So, here I am.

Today marks the beginning of March, which feels utterly impossible. Both January and February felt as though they each lasted no more than a week, and I desperately hope that this does not continue, as I have no desire to experience 2011 in just a scant twelve weeks’ time. An entire year in the space of three months? That just wouldn’t be fair.

Part of the reason for the speedy pass through the beginning of this year has to be due to just how much we have had to endure in this short time. And I’m not talking about the weather. I’m talking about my family. February especially was a hard month for us. I spent two weeks in Brazil on a business trip managing a software implementation in one of our factories. During this time, I developed a rather unpleasant intestinal bug that kept me from feeling my best. I thought I had it pretty bad, that is until my wife sent me a text message in the middle of the night near the end of my trip informing me that she had taken our young son Alex to the hospital. He was sick with the stomach flu and was dehydrated and unresponsive.

I returned from my trip on Friday, where my brother picked me up at the airport and took me straight over to the hospital to be with my boy. It was a difficult couple of days, but he was doing better over the weekend, and finally released on Sunday. The past couple of days, he’s been back to his old self, which is a frustration in and of itself for completely different reasons, but at least he can smile again, and that is truly a blessing.

In the meantime, between the travel and family concerns, I haven’t spent a decent minute on my ongoing creative project challenge for 2011. Which, I’ll admit, is a trivial thing when compared to everything else that has happened recently. However, now that things have begun to return to some semblance of normalcy, I’m determined to produce something for this week, and then we’ll see about going back and filling in some of the blank weeks with extra projects. I’m absolutely of the mind that by the time 2012 begins, I will have fifty-two completed creative projects, and I will not allow myself to succumb to laziness or ineptitude and have my challenge go unfulfilled.

I will succeed at this.

And so the great ancient thirteenth month of Smarch rears its hoary head and opens its gaping maw, issuing forth monstrous, wracking gusts of dismay and horror to torment our poor heroes. But we continue onward, pulling our cloaks about us, steadfastly marching towards the next seemingly insurmountable obstacle, the next ordeal, the next painful trial.

And as we struggle forth, we look the unspeakable horrors of this earth in their dead, black eyes and we say “You cannot harm us, for we are Paynes, and we invented agony.”

Sorry, went off the rails a bit there, didn’t I? In any case, we’ll be fine. Here’s hoping the rest of 2011 passes a bit more slowly than the first sixth of the year already has.