Gone Fishin', BRB

Interpret this post as one of those signs shop owners hang in the window with a little clock: "Closed, back at..." Except my clock is a calendar, and I'm back on August 29.

I've been on the job with WTDY for about for about six months now, and as our morning anchor Tim Morrissey is prone to blurting out, "I've had about all I can take! I'm leaving." I love the job, but I've been "go-go-going," for about six months straight now, week in and week out, and I feel like a clock that's been wound too tight.

(This is where Morrissey would point out that I've never owned a winding alarm clock in my life, and he'd be right).

So I'm heading north for some quality time with my Dad, his Dad and a bunch of fish. The idea is to get as far from civilization and its accompanying internets, television networks and newspapers as possible, so we're literally going to drive north until we run out of road, then get into a pontoon plane the next day and fly further north.

I've done this trip to Lake Otatakan once before, and for a nature-lover stuck in the city, it's amazingly cathartic. The routine is simple... up with the sun, fish, eat lunch, fish, take a nap, fish, eat dinner, read a book, play cards, drink beer and pass out before the mosquitoes carry you away...then dream about fishing.

It's gonna be nice. I don't even think I'll be bothered by not knowing Barack Obama's VP pick.

I feel like a different person entirely when I'm unplugged, and to prove it, I'll take along a notebook and revive the old practice of writing writing... as in actually sitting down with a pen and slowly, methodically composing one's thoughts instead of vomiting them out through the keyboard. If what ends up in the notebook makes any sense at all, I'll post some of it when I get back.

In the meantime, stay classy and stay tuned. There's a lot going on this fall, and I'll be ready to deal with it when I get back. I'm elbow deep in a couple of exciting projects outside work, including a new place to blog from courtesy of my buddy MattRock. There will be more on that on the way.