Nuts and Bolts

Back a million years ago when I was in radio, the owner of our station decreed that we never let the audience know what was going on "behind he scenes." We were to never describe the technical aspects of what we did. When there was a glitch of some sort, and there often were, we were not to explain it - just move on with the show. It was all supposed to be theatre-of-the-mind, and the less the listener knew about How It Worked the better.

In the helicopter, I similarly do not like to explain the nuts-and-bolts of what I'm doing, even to those, like my boss, who have some familiarity with flying. I see the looks on the faces of my passengers as they watch me go about my business. I prefer for them to think that flying is magic or something...that making the helicopter fly from here to there "just happens" by me moving these sticks around in some mysterious ways. It's dumb, I know.

As for blogging, the posts obviously don't just appear on the screen. They take some work. I know some bloggers who write very quickly, who post every day. That's not me. I labor over each post - believe it or not - until it conveys just the right thought and has the right "sound" when I read it in my head. I usually compose in Word. Then, when all of the spelling/grammar mistakes have been handled, I'll paste it onto the blogger program, format the text into this stupid Trebuchet font, insert any pictures, then send it on its way.

But yesterday morning something strange happened. I was composing that piece on going to the drag show, but I was editing it directly in Blogger, not MSWord. I knew I was going to have to go flying (and be gone for the whole week), and wanted to speed the process up a bit. The Boss called, and moved our departure time up. This meant I'd have to leave for the airport right then, and I wasn't even packed. So I closed the laptop, figuring Blogger would just save the rough draft of the post for later. Wrong - it published it! Way prematurely, I might add.

Last evening I got to the hotel here in Birmingham and settled in. Job Number One: Check email, of course. Imagine my shock to see an echoed response to the unintentionally posted Emerald City deal! Dang it, that wasn't supposed to happen. So I went in, deleted the post, finished it offline and the posted it again.

There. I've violated my own rule about not letting people behind the scenes. But it kind of ticked me off, and I felt the need to explain.