10 Year Anniversary of THC

"Hi everybody. This is Logan. I'm really not sure how to do this whole blog thing, so please bare with me. Rach and I thought it would be a good idea to have a blog in order to stay in touch with the family. For those who don't know yet, we will be moving to Cleveland, Ohio this summer where I will start dental school at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU).

Anyway, I will start posting as soon as I figure it out."


This was the entire content of our first blog post, exactly ten years ago today. It had two pageviews. I never knew at that time what it would eventually become.

Somehow, the universe likes nice, round numbers. Today, on the tenth anniversary of our blog, this happens to be our 500th post. In that time, we have received nearly seventy THOUSAND pageviews. We have published 10 printed yearbooks, and have had at least one picture stolen for use in a viral Facebook meme. It's been quite the run...and we're just getting started.

More importantly, we have established a family legacy that, hopefully, will last for a long, long time. There are moments when I think about how fun it would be if I could read The Hazard Chronicles that my parents, or grandparents, or great grandparents had written. Regrettably, no such documents exist. Even now, it is fun and sometimes insightful to go back and read the week-to-week repository of our thoughts and priorities, as well as the activities we have been engaged in. The photos add texture to the narrative, and to be honest, would probably just get lost on a hard-drive somewhere if we didn't have this tradition.

I also have to confess that one function of The Hazard Chronicles is to be an outlet for my wavering flirtations with the act of writing itself. Ever since I was young, I have enjoyed this pursuit, and the thought that each week over a hundred people will read what I put on the internet keeps me in good practice. Admittedly, not all posts represent the paragon of creative prose that I tell myself I am capable of- but they are almost all edited to a certain extent for things like grammar and wording for basic intelligibility. Every now and then, I will even go out of my way to do a little more than this. It is fun, and in its own way, rewarding.

So I guess, like it or not, The Hazard Chronicles are a pretty permanent part of our family. Sometimes it's a chore. Usually it's not. Almost always, it is interesting and insightful to go back years later and read things that were written with 20/20 hindsight. For example- did I realize how sappy we were back in 2007? And did we really think that kids were that difficult in 2009? Ha! Our attitudes about our new business in 2012 demonstrated that we had a lot to learn. And a deep sigh of relief and optimism seems to permeate every page of 2015.

These pages are our lives; the memories contained within these books are my most cherished possessions. There are other journals and records, of course, that aren't so public. But nothing that is quite so extensive as the words that are shared here each week.

It's been a great 10 years. Here's to many more!