Looking back at twenty years on the web in prepration for my anniversary on 13 January. Today’s focus is 1998, the year I began doing web work professionally and realy began to question whether I wanted to spend the rest of my life in San Francisco.

January

• Instant Retro

February

• Storms and the Sunset: Reflecting my newfound love for areas outside Central SF.

March

April

• On Being a Hermit

May

• The Mailbag: Back when people used to care enough to be context-impaired assholes.
• My Sensors Weren’t Working:In which I bring home a flat-out freak.

June

• Vegas Revisited: In which I travel to Las Vegas for a first date.
• San Francisco, Herb Caen, and Me

July

The Idiot Factor: Pilot for a  new series that never quite took off except as a running theme.

• August:
• Disillusioned

August

September

• A Quinn Martin Production: This was actually the first “blog” post on the site, although we didn’t call them that at the time.

October

• Planet SOMA US Tour 1998: It begins here and carries on for three weeks or so (several posts follow).

November

• Road trip to Reno

December

• Faux Butch
• Home for the Holidays (several posts follow)

As a self-indulgent tribute to twenty years on the web, I’m looking back at one year a day leading to the actual anniversary on 13 January 2016. 1997 was all about free time, road trips, building a new website, and the occasional bit of debauchery. It was also the year I started questioning my relationship with San Francisco.

January

• San Francisco: Insulated from Reality

February

• Freaky Fresno: An early nod to my love affair with the Central Valley.
• (Auto)mobile Again: Arrival of the car I loved longer than all others.

March

• Road trip to Portland and Seattle (several posts follow)
• Sociability: Includes my first mention of Sarah, who would become one of my best friends.

April

• Road trip to Las Vegas

May

• The Ideal Personal Ad
• Sacramento

June

• Pride 1997: The Rant

July

• A codger at 33
• The evil “cootie factor”

August

• Planet SOMA US Tour 1997: The five-week cross-country online road trip to end all road trips (several posts follow).

September

October

November

December

• On Personal Ads
• Home for the Holidays (several posts follow)

She’s 87 years old and sharp as a tack.

She’s been a widow for twenty years, but has usually had a boyfriend since her husband died.

She lives alone next door. She’s always been like a second mother to me, but we both value our privacy and stay out of each other’s hair most of the time.

She drives (well) and uses a computer. She rarely asks for help with the latter.

She works in the yard and keeps a spotless house.

And now, after probably 70 years with the habit, she has quit smoking.

I fully expect her to be the first one in our family to make it to (and past) the age of 100. Hell, she’ll probably outlive me. And I fully approve.

Busy. Stuff soon. Really.

Don’t forget that whole Twitter thing. Or that other whole Twitter thing.