Five years doesn’t seem like a long time. If your kid just turned five, he probably hasn’t even started kindergarten yet. And if he has, it was probably just last month. Sure, there was the whole birthing process and the new parent phase and the “I cleaned it up last time, it’s your turn,” phase. And let’s not forget about the crying painful teething phase, or the “Grab the camera, quick, he’s walking!” phase.
At this point, the kid is more or less eating real food, walking on his own, getting into things you thought were out of reach, and likely talking endlessly. Which, if I’m being perfectly honest is pretty much what this website has been doing the last five years. Walking on its own two legs, yeah, but also saying lots of things that will likely get me into serious trouble one day, and also stomping into places that normal people with more common sense would step over or altogether avoid.
In some ways, five years also seems like a very long time, especially when I look back at everything that’s happened over that period.
September 2018 – moved into our house, which we’ve been building more or less ourselves
October 2018 – launched my website
Summer 2019 – The Discovery Channel and Homestead Rescue asked us to be on their show
Spring 2020 – COVID
May 2020 – George Floyd and mass rioting
Rest of 2020 – Covid lockdowns, and the sky was falling down
November 2020 – Biden elected President; no more 3AM Presidential rage-tweets
January 2021 – Insurrection, election deniers, MAGA craziness
January 2022 – Morgan unplugs from all social media accounts
February 2022 – Russia invades Ukraine
June 2022 – US Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade
Summer 2022 – January 6th Committee holds public hearings detailing events from the insurrection
August 2022 – FBI raids Mar-a-Lago and hauls out a trove of Top Secret documents
October 2022 – Elon Musk destroys Twitter
November 2022 – Trump announces he’ll run again for President
December 2022 – Morgan and Wendy celebrate 30 years of marriage
January 2023 – It takes 15 tries for the Republicans to elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
February 2023 – Chinese spy balloons are shot down over the US and Canada
Throughout 2023 – Donald Trump indictments in four separate jurisdictions on a total of 91 charges, including business and financial fraud, racketeering, conspiracy to defraud the US government, obstruction, and willful retention of national defense information, not to mention sexual abuse and defamation (E Jean Carroll) and falsifying business records (Stormy Daniels)
May 2023 – writers and actors guilds go on strike to protest working conditions, pay rates, and use of artificial intelligence, among other things
September 2023 – Morgan and Wendy vacation in Puerto Rico, Wendy’s first trip outside the continental US
October 2023 – Morgan turns 53, and Mouthing Off Into the Void turns 5
Those are just the highlights that stood out to me during that time. What have I accomplished in the last five years, you ask? well, on the writing front, I’ve written twenty-six stories: 16 flash/micro fiction, 7 short stories, 3 novelettes. I’ve also posted many articles on this website. In addition, I met TJ Knight, NV Haskell, Rob Wilkins, and JV Ashley through the Writers of the Future forum, and the five of us formed a writing group to help each other out. (Inside this site, you’ll find Author Spotlights for each of these fine folks. It’s like a little scavenger hunt…go look for them!) I started this site for the Ray Bradbury Challenge, which didn’t go so well. Currently I’m doing micro stories for Inktober, which is fun.
We also visited Graceland and Washington DC and Puerto Rico, among other places. Wendy and I have hiked who knows how many miles of backpacking trails. I’ve won a few Honorable Mentions and one Semi Finalist certificates in the Writers of the Future contest. Our youngest son graduated from high school. More work has been completed on the house, although it likely won’t be “finished” for at least a few more years.
It’s been a crazy five years, but I’m still here, and I’m still enjoying my website. I get few visitors, mostly just my family and my writing group friends, but that’s okay. This website started out being just for me, and it continues to be just for me. At first, I was a little miffed because hardly anyone drops by and leaves comments. Initially, I thought it would be a “If you build it, they will come” kind of thing. But it’s cool. I’m just glad I have my own private space where I can say whatever’s on my mind, and no one can block me or put me in social media jail or troll me. As the owner of this space, I can do whatever I want, and that’s pretty cool.
Happy 5th Birthday, Mouthing Off! It’s been a wild and crazy five years, and the next five years aren’t looking any less crazy. We’re at a weird cross-roads in the world right now, especially here in the US, where our traditional two-party system of government is down to just one party and one group of crazies, except that the crazy train is in charge and running full steam off the rails.
So thanks for stopping by! Be sure and grab a slice of cake off the back table before you go, and maybe leave a little happy birthday note in the comments section if you feel so inclined.
Happy birthday 🎉🎈🎂🎊🎁 🥳
Aww happy 5th!
When I read through the events of the last five years in that summation, it’s no wonder we’re all walking around a bit like Chicken Little, with our necks tucked into our collars. The sky has not stopped falling, nor does it ever seemingly intend to.
Congratulations on 5 years! You’ve accomplished so much in the time, and should be proud of your efforts.