Hi everyone,
As you know, things are not normal in our world. They really aren't normal in Ottawa, where much of our city is still pretty much shut down. Since the beginning of this pandemic, my life has changed a great deal. I am now fully immersed in teaching my oldest daughter and getting her through the remainder of her school year. I am working from home full time as well. On top of that, my wife continues to work evenings, which has tended to fill my day with childcare and school.
On top of that, I have taken on a great deal of volunteer work with my community, mainly with my church. That has tended to take up a lot of time as well. The things I have learned in the last few months are amazing to me. I am livestreaming events, creating elaborate videos and doing a number of other things to keep people connected and hopeful. This work has occupied huge chunks of my day, but I do it with a smile as I take great pride in trying to do my little part in making the world a better place.
Finally, I am also still actively involved with an Internet radio station in producing a regular half-hour program. That takes up an incredible amount of time as well. The ratio means that one half hour of air time usually requires about four times as much prep time and editing. So, we're talking about several hours.
Obviously, I have not been able to do much trackside and I don't see this changing anytime soon. Ottawa is a railfan's nightmare at the best of times, so you can imagine what it's like now.
All this to say I don't want to continue producing a blog when I cannot give it my full attention. You people are smart and you can likely tell a good blog from a mediocre blog. I believe you deserve the best that I can give and I'm just not in a position to deliver quality material right now.
For these reasons, I am taking a hiatus from blogging to regroup, think of some new content, get some new pictures trackside, do some research and make a better go of things when the world allows me to do so.
Over the years, I have gotten a number of encouraging messages from fellow railfans who have told me how much they enjoy my efforts from this lonely railway outpost called Ottawa. Those messages have often kept my going when things got tough.
So thank you all. We'll see you soon, I hope!
Take care,
Michael
hammond.michael77 AT gmail DOT com
