A long-awaited summer, a tortured vacation and a much too long break

This was the second-longest break I've taken since Hive. It has been 22 days since I last wrote anything. I screwed up a bit the statistic that told me I had posted once every day and a half for almost eight years. Time flies so fast that I didn't even realize that I've aged here...

It's pretty hard to get back into the habit of posting regularly when you take such a long break. It's hard for me, because I took a break equal to a hiatus, over three months, in the beginning.

As a new member in Hive's predecessor, whose name I won't mention, I had a rough start, facing a lack of readers and interest from others due to my unknown and inexperienced status in blogging and interaction. After about a year, I don't recall exactly, but I believed that things wouldn't change for me, with no financial or social rewards, so I decided to leave the platform, as I had done with countless others before.

Yes, before I started blogging, I tried my hand at internet marketing. I found it fascinating to be able to earn money working from home, alone, and at my convenience. I did that for many years, but with a negative balance, because I spent more than I earned...

A friend recommended this new blockchain project to me, long before it was called Hive. I liked what I saw, I've always enjoyed working for myself and getting paid for my work, good or bad as it may have been.

Then I gave up everything I had gathered as an internet marketer (many programs, contact lists, affiliate marketing, and MLM trackers, and I also abandoned all the big, well-known social networks (that was wrong!)

I blogged primarily for the money. Later, I realized the other benefits of this community. First and foremost, making friends with different people than on other social networks. People in various parts of the world whom you care about. To get to know them better, to learn about their joys and sorrows, to give advice and encouragement, and to receive the same.

We always suffered when we saw one of our colleagues leaving without publishing anything and not replying to messages.

What I'm saying now is that I will later go back to the moment when I also left the boat, as they say. After a break of a couple of weeks, I tried to come back, but we couldn't, and as time passed, I saw myself farther and farther away from this place. I was also used to giving up, so I was going through the usual evolution.

Still, it was a lady, one of the most wonderful ladies here, who convinced me to come back. Eternal gratitude and respect! After that, things settled down, and I realized what I had done wrong and what I had to do, and I carried on with my life all these years.

A lady who wanted to teach us that a flower must always be.

At the beginning of this month, summer came. Summer means the sea. I live on the mainland, and I think about the sea a lot. I constantly miss it, and when I can, I run to see it. It's about 300 kilometers away. I live in Romania and have a favorite place on the Black Sea, in Bulgaria. The city is called Balchik, I love it and have written about it hundreds of times.

I'm heading towards 72, and all sorts of diseases have taken hold of me, and I have to carry them on my back. Painful and unpleasant, but I think there's an advantage in that, I thought to myself now.

Maybe, when the lady with the scythe, Death, will be looking for me and will see how many diseases I have, perhaps it will be hard for her to choose the one that will kill me... and she'll give me some time before she decides, ha, ha...

This seaside vacation had been paid for long before, and now I was obliged to go, although, strangely, not unfamiliar, back and leg pains were beginning to bother me. I should have given up, but I couldn't; I have to see the sea every year.

To cut a long story short, it was a sad vacation, with painful walks by the sea and a lumbosciatica attack that got worse, but luckily I managed to drive home on the way back.

But after this, I've been in bed for almost three weeks, I can't move except with heavy pain... and I can't sit at my desk to write.

This time, my absence from Hive is due to illness, and thankfully, it is not a result of saturation or dissatisfaction.

Coincidences are strange sometimes. Some people don't believe in coincidences; they think that "someone" arranges things in a certain way. I don't have a firm opinion about that...

I told you above that I was persuaded by a lady most of you know well, to go back, many years ago, to that attempt of mine to leave our platform.

Well, the lady I am talking about has also left Hive, which is unthinkable to me. She's an important member here, respected by most for her friendship and her generous help to all who need it.
More than that, she let me believe that we are friends, although we come from different worlds. We joined the old Hive in June 2017.

Well, the lady I'm talking about hasn't posted in two years. She sent a little token now and then and...that's it!
I never thought such a thing could happen, but it did!

I was talking above about coincidences...

Eight days ago, I got a message:

I hope she won't mind me revealing this; there are so few eyes that see my posts that it doesn't matter, but I'm sure those who do will be very happy with this promise.

Our colleague, @dswigle, turned 8 years of Hive on June 16.
Here's hoping for a return as soon as possible and many more years here, no breaks. Not because it's essential, but I also promise not to miss any more.

This is the beginning of the summer that I shared with you, as I used to do in Hive, which I missed. I hope to recover as soon as possible and get back to my old habits.

I learned here that we need to use photos in our blogs. I've always used them, maybe too much. Photos that support the subject. All the images are from this vacation in Balchik.

I chose this community to write this, thinking there would be reflections, but I'm afraid they were more confessions. I hope @tarazkp and @galenkp won't disqualify me.

Thank you!