Z Is For Zulu (A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015)

Today is the last day of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. It’s  ze-end. I’ve read some entertaining and enlightening blogs,  and met interesting people along the way.  I’ve learned a  lot this month. Foremost:  blogging is fun, but it’s also work. It’s a challenge to come up with topics and share your thoughts and ideas (or even scarier—your feelings) every day.  I’ve met some wonderfully talented bloggers. I’ve read interesting, enlightening, and entertaining blog posts, I’ve been encouraged by others who have taken the time to drop a line or two. I’ve been exposed to a variety of blogs—the differing blog set-ups, writing styles, and personalities have given me much to consider about my own style, site, and content. It’s been a fun month of learning, and I look forward to doing this again next year. Now to capitalize on this learning and momentum...and continue to consitantly blog.

For this last blog, I wanted something profound or meaningful to blog about. The problem, as always, is what should that be? Coming up with just the right Z-word  presented itself as a puzzle, a conundrum, dare I say it…a challenge…
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com

Zebra, Zinger, Zaire, Zipper, Zapped, Zany,  Zither…these are just a few of the Z-words filtering through my head. But nothing spoke to me. I wanted something to represent ze-end. But I didn’t want it to be  a made up word like ze-end.  I wanted a real word.

I thought about it before I went to sleep last night, and when I awoke, I was still floundering.  Then, it hit me as I drove to work—I get hit by a lot a great ideas while I drive to work.

Zulu. Not the South African Tribe or the language—the International Radio Communication code word for the letter Z—the last letter of the English alphabet.  The only problem is:  I don’t know anything about the International Radio Communication Code, so how could I write about it?  

I did what I always do when I need information, I Googled it and found the formal name of the code is actually the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet; however, most people know it as the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Phonetic Alphabet.  By the way, since I was reading about codes, I found out the Morse Code equivalent of the letter Z is _ _ . .  (dash dash dot dot).

If I had come up with zulu as the inspiration for my last blog earlier, I might have developed a code or a riddle for today—that would be kind of fun…humm…maybe next year…. 

But this year, as the A to Z Blogging Challenge ends,  I’m in a melancholy mood, so I leave you with  my favorite poem format:  the Haiku.

Z-day Haiku

zulu day arrived
a to z blogging  challenge
end is bitter sweet

End code Haiku

dash dash dot dot is

morse code for the letter zee
simply put       ze end

This blog post is my final contribution to the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015, in which bloggers from around the world, representing every skill level and interest, blog every Monday through Saturday during the month of April, using successive letters of the alphabet as the daily inspiration.  I look forward to participating again next year—hope to see you then if not sooner!