Clever person that you are, you no doubt may have inferred from the post title that I will be leaving Firedoglake, which has been my home lo these past six years, in the near future. By which I mean ‘next week’, … by which I mean ‘Thursday-ish’.

Yup, let’s say next Thursday. So it is written, so it shall be done.

A few things about this turn of events because there will no doubt be some speculatin’ and hypothicatin’ and such and such. Regular readers are aware that I’ve been threatening to pull a Billmon for some time now only to be talked down off the ledge. I have been an internet presence and somewhat-popular blogger for about thirteen years which, in internet years, makes me “old as fuck” as my grandmother used to say. While I have done this blogging thing mainly as a hobby – since I have actual Real Life Skills that are monetizable in The Real World – it has also been a rather all-consuming hobby which has taken me away from my family, the outside world (why live at the beach if you’re going to spend every free hour in front of a computer?), and from reading actual books (in lieu of blogs written by idiots), as well as watching movies and the teevee and enjoying life’s rich pageant. What tipped the scales this time was the recent loss of  the brilliant and greatly missed Doghouse Riley whom, I will note, was younger than moi when he passed so suddenly. As was Jon Swift. And Steve Gilliard. And Jim Capozzola. For me, this was a mortality wake-up call.

So I’m stepping out for awhile. Maybe work on that post-modern roman à clef coming of age historical romance novel (with exploding robots!) that I’ve been kicking around. Maybe just sitting in a coffee house staring off into the distance creating the appearance that I Am Thinking Deep Thoughts when I’m actually trying to remember where I parked the car.  Maybe I’ll reinvent myself, even though all the cool names like Thunderclap Newman and Beyoncé are already taken. Or maybe I’ll finally figure out what I want to be if I ever grow up. It could totally happen.

Will I be back somewhere, sometime? Who the hell knows. Being on the internet and entertaining your weird little internet friends is, like meth or watching a Toddlers & Tiaras marathon, a hell of a drug. But for now ….

Having said all of that, I can’t thank the good people who run Firedoglake – from Jane Hamsher, who brought me here and has always been my biggest supporter no matter how much I pissed everyone off, to the various moderators and editors who turned a blind eye every time I was an asshole towards some of the commenters (who all had it coming. FACT.) –  enough for their support and creative rationalizations for excusing my dickish behavior. You guys have been swell and if you ever need to me to lie to the feds about you,  just ask, even though the NSA will know better. [cont’d.]

For everyone else … intermittent blogging for the next days, maybe replaying some greatest hits, some basset pictures, and probably some of this.

Yeah. Definitely more of that.