plunging right in . . .

I have a history of teetering on the brink of new experiences for months, even years, then one day taking the plunge. One day in 1979, after several years of avoiding Parkway traffic around Pittsburgh because I feared the speed, the congestion, and the necessity of knowing what lane I needed before I got snared in the wrong one, I decided I couldn't face another trip across town in 35 mph zones with stoplights every quarter mile, and I got on the Parkway East in Monroeville, funneled across the bridge and through the tunnel onto the Parkway West, and drove home to Moon Township. I avoided learning word processing in the late 80s and early 90s, even avoiding computerized card catalogs at first, and then I signed up for a class that met primarily through asynchronous computer conferencing and volunteered to teach basic writing in a LAN classroom in the fall of 1993, so I learned some Unix commands, Word Perfect, and Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment all at once.
Today I begin my all-purpose writing-prof blog. Perhaps it will branch into postings for ENG 102 and ENG 315: Teaching Writing and writing center commentary, but for now it's my leap into public journaling, a particularly scary venture for someone who can't take the shrink-wrap off the publishers' copies of books she's written chapters for. Are those bungee cords secured to my ankles, or is that loop the noose that will tighten around my neck as I free-fall?