What a gorgeous day. The sun is out. It’s 19 degrees centigrade. (That’s 66 degrees Fahrenheit for those of you who home-school your children.) The camellia and magnolia are in bloom. My lawn is newly mowed. The birds and squirrels are chattering while the cats — all four of them — explore the ground below. (Max was amazed — amazed! to see that the back doors allowed him another way in and out of the house.)

I’ve dragged the card table and a couple folding chairs out here onto the porch, so that I can have a real and proper writing table. I’ve been puffing my pipe. I’ve been reading comic strips. I’ve been answering e-mail. In short: life is grand.

And soon Kris will return from Virginia, making things that much better.

Today marks this site’s sixth anniversary. I’d had a site before that, of course, and even an “online journal” (which is what we called them back before they were blogs, back when we coded them by hand). But it was six years ago today that I signed up at some place called Blogger and began my experiment with formalized writing for the web.

That first year was rocky. I didn’t post often. I posted typical “here’s what I ate for breakfast” entries. I worried about the upcoming Lord of the Rings films. (With some cause, as it turns out.) After Septemeber 11th, I went silent for a whole month as I tried to wrap my brain around it. Notable entries from year one:

• First Post
• Toward a Pastoral Lifestyle, in which I yearn for a simpler life
• The Joy of Napster
• Tintin is Dying, in which the Best Cat Ever has mere weeks to live
• Yurting, which describes an outing with Mac and Pam
• The Lure of Digital Photography
• Reconnecting, in which we meet with all the cousins for the first time in more than a decade
• Who Owns the Memories? Blogging is a new type of writing. What can be shared? What remains private?
• Best Hearts Game Ever &mash; in retrospect, this was the pinnacle of a particular period in my life, and this entry documents how much I enjoyed it
• TAG Science, a typical memory post

During the second year, I left Blogger, which at that time was too unstable and inflexible for my liking. I moved to a new platform called Movable Type. It was great! It lived on my own server and offered all sorts of flexibility. Notable posts from this period of 2002-2003 include:

• Frustrated, an entry more notable for what is not said than what is…
• U2: A Love Story
• Star Wars Generation, of which I am a member
• Pet Cemetery, in which I bury another cat and name the fellows he joines…
• Simon comes to live with us
• Animal Intelligence
• adhesive capsulitis — For what seemed like months (but was only days), I had “frozen shoulder”. This entry has become a place for others to gather and share their suffering.
• FC Saints, in which I play city league soccer with Mac, Pam, and Joel
• Herb Nelson is my favorite client ever. I also wrote about him in Herb Nelson and the Autogyro Airplane.
• I gave my spiritual history in Genesis, Exodus, and Revelations.
• Peter Jackson’s Helm’s Deep sucked.
• Beyond the Basics was a photography class I took with Mac
• I shared the recipe for the best clam chowder ever!
• Better Living Through Wireless opens with a very important (and expensive) moment in my life

In retrospect, this blog’s third year was its Golden Age. It had many readers, and they left many comments. I wrote about a lot of things (especially Proust). I had fun. I wrote about a high-school leadership camp. I met Dr. Comic Book Guy. I dreamed I met an old friend (while naked). I fell in love with the iTunes Music Store. Mac, Joel, and I played with a videophone. I meditated on the simplicity movement. I wrote about Dad. Twice. (That last entry is one of my favorites.) I had knee surgery. I went clam-digging. I entered the photo competition at the county fair. I went camping with Mac. I took a writing class from Rick Piet. I started reading the Patrick O’Brian books. (And managed to get me, Joel, and Dave kicked out of a Patrick O’Brian movie.) We endured an ice storm. We spent time in Yakima with Jeremy and Jennifer. I wrote about the malleability of time.

The fourth year began with a bang. I changed the layout to the form you see here today. This layout has served me well. I’ve tried to change it a couple of times, but always you folks have risen in revolt. This year was marked by a sudden change: we bought a new home. Some favorite entries include:

• The Giraffes are Insincere, in which Kris and I join the Gingeriches for a trip to the zoo. And spilled ups of hot chocolate.
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spgmffft, in which we do not see a movie
• The cats were active during this fourth year. Toto interviewed me. Simon tasted the blood of a squirrel. They founded Catfight Club.
• I shared Action Girl’s Guide to Living and discussed the tyrrany of choice.
• I went hiking with Andrew, Craig, Tim, and Mac.
• We took an Alaskan cruise.
• I peed of the back porch.
• Proust made another appearance.
• I discovered World of Warcraft.

I retrieved a skunk from under the trailer house.

• I watched the new Battlestar Galactica.
• My camera was stolen, but Joel found it.

During this site’s fifth year, I discovered The Decemberists. I learned that Tuesday is Sno-Ball day. The cats shared a weekend at Rosings Park and were fascinated by a squirrel. I actually shared too much cat. I also shared the golden rules of weblogging. I struggled to get better sleep. My heart was melted by the gin fizz.

And, of course, I wrote the most important entry ever: Get Rich Slowly! Little did I know at the time that this one article would launch my career as a professional blogger. But it did. And it has.

In the fall of 2005, midway through the site’s fifth year, Movable Type died. It suddenly decided that I wasn’t allowed to access my blogs. Nobody could comment. This sucked. Hard. I was forced to start from scratch. Since that day, I’ve been moving old entries over to the new version of the site gradually, but there are still many that cannot accept comments.

The past eighteen months have been up-and-down for me here. I suffered some mild depression, which affected my writing. I started some new blogs, which affected my posting frequency. I tried to move this site to WordPress, but again you folks opposed the change.

Finally, last fall, I found and equilibrium, and since then I’ve tried to return to the same posting schedule and content I had before. I know I haven’t succeeded completely, but I’m trying. For the past few months — and for the forseeable future — my life is Get Rich Slowly, the blog. This is my future. Because I spend so much time at it, I don’t have as much time to live, which means I have less to write about here. But it won’t always be this way.

Check back in another six years. With any luck, foldedspace will be in an other golden age!