A Blogiversary...and Stuff

It was seven years ago today that I began blogging, at the urging of two friends who were then bloggers themselves but have since discontinued their blogs in favor of Facebook. 

I can't really lay claim to a seventh anniversary of blogging, though, because I took a year off in 2014-2015, when my brother-in-law was going through some serious health issues and needed our help. So, really, I can claim only six years. 😉

After my year away from blogging, I didn't know whether there would still be anyone who would even notice my return to it, but there were some dear blogging friends who were back visiting and commenting as if they'd been there all along, just waiting for my return. It warmed my heart.

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There haven't been many photos from the summer to share on the blog, but following are a few miscellaneous images to document some of our activities. 

The above photo was taken in July at the annual Friends of Israel Prophecy Conference at Winona Lake, Indiana. Doug and I have been attending at least some of the sessions of the conference for several years. The picture shows us with one of the staff members of the Friends of Israel organization.

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Back in the sixties, the one place in town that would hire high school graduates with no prior experience was Lincoln National Life. The pay wasn't great; and many of the young women moved on to better-paying jobs after gaining the needed experience. So, generally speaking, we were all in our late teens and early twenties. It made for some great camaraderie among coworkers. Several of us even vacationed together a couple of times at Michigan dude ranches.

Carole, Mary, Dorthea, Sandy, Linda

In 2005, the dude ranch friends organized a reunion when Mary, our only out-of-towner, came back to town to visit family. Since then, it's become an annual tradition to get together when Mary comes to town. The photo above is from this year's reunion on July 22nd.

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A new restaurant recently opened in our area, and we made plans to go there with our friends, Jim and Sandy, on August 12. Sandy decided to stop at the restaurant that afternoon, to see if they took reservations. When she pulled into the parking lot, she parked next to a classic car. Two men were standing nearby, and one of them (Don, as she learned later) quickly approached Sandy's car and opened the car door for her (apparently thinking she looked like the type that might bang her door against the classic car next to her).

Sandy asked Don and his friend (Dick, as she learned later) if they knew whether the restaurant took reservations. They said no but offered to hold a table for her.

Well, they weren't holding a table for us when we arrived for our dinner date, but they showed up while we were eating. They presented Sandy with a DVD of a movie called "Clerical Errors," in which Don had played the leading role.

Don Offerle and my friend, Sandy

I did a little poking around on the internet after I got home, and it turns out that Don had appeared in two other movies, as well, before suffering serious injuries in a bicycle accident in 2015. In addition, I found this interesting article which had appeared in our local newspaper in January, 2016. It's a little long, but it made me glad I'd had this brief encounter with this gentle soul.

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Well, that's it for this anniversary post. I want you all to know how much I appreciate you. You're the ones who deserve a pat on the back!

Blogging Blessings

In my six-plus years of blogging, I've been blessed to get to know so many other bloggers from around the world, people that I might never meet personally in this life but with whom I've found some wonderful virtual friendships. But the big surprise to me is how many unexpected visitors to my blog have come as a result of various photographs I've posted or stories I've told. Here are some examples:

I've already written here about the renewal of a friendship with the girls in the above photo, a friendship that had lain dormant for nearly fifty years.

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In my posts about my horses and about Kerrydale Ranch, I spoke of Lauren, from whom I'd purchased my first horse, a Half-Arabian mare named Gayranna. After Gayranna's death in 1981, Lauren and I lost contact with each other. But, one day, about a year and a half ago, as Lauren was poking around on the internet, she typed in Gayranna's name and voila! She was led to my blog, where she found my email address and contacted me.

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Another woman, Melanie, was led to the same post about my horses when she typed the name of her horse, Sera Diamond, into the search engine. Sera Diamond was one of those foals produced by my beloved Half-Arabian mare. Melanie and I exchanged emails, and she sent me the above photo of Sera Diamond. Here is what she wrote: "Sera Diamond, Sammy to me, was my horse in the 80's. We showed the Arabian circuit and took many wonderful trail rides. He was amazing! We loved to play tag in the field and he always loved a good carrot! He made the 'teen years' much easier." It was such a pleasure to hear from Melanie and to know a little bit about the life Sera Diamond had after I sold him.

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My post about our family's summer vacations in Canada during my growing-up years was discovered by the daughter of the current owner of the property. Recognizing the property from the photos, she contacted her parents; and her mother emailed me and even sent some pictures showing what the place looks like now.

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The Bureau of Land Management contacted me, asking permission to use my photo of Split Rock (above), an important landmark on the Oregon Trail, in a technical brochure. When the brochure was published, they were kind enough to send me a copy.

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Another photo is scheduled to be included in a camping brochure to be published later this year. I don't feel the freedom to be more specific about that since the brochure hasn't been finalized yet. There's always a chance they'll decide not to use my photo. That happened once before when a company asked permission to use one of my images in an Indiana tourism publication. In the end, they didn't include it in the final product. But it was still a thrill to have had one of my photos considered for the project.

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I did a post  here about two country bands that I'd seen and loved in the sixties: Ray Corbin & the Raymen and Waylon Jennings & the Waylors. The son of Ray Corbin found that post and shared some of his memories of both his dad and Waylon.

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My post about Portland Arch (pictured above) drew a contact from a man named Michael, who had accumulated a detailed history of that area, which he kindly sent to me. About a year and a half later, a man named Bob emailed me, reminiscing about his experiences at the Arch and even including pictures from when he had been there as a Boy Scout. I sent him a copy of the history that Michael had provided and put the two of them in touch with each other.

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One of the most amazing things that has come from the blog started with a contact from Jordan Liles, asking permission to use some of my photos from our first trip to the Smokies in 1990, in a video he was making. If interested, you can view his video here.

Soon after Jordan's video went public, the Huffington Post picked up the story, and my stats skyrocketed. Next, Yahoo News ran the story, and the stats jumped again. About a year later, the story resurfaced on social media, although greatly distorted. Nevertheless, it again resulted in a jump in page views on my blog. To date, at 16,207 page views and climbing, the post about the beginning of our love affair with the Smoky Mountains is the most viewed post on my blog.

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I'm Back!

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my discontinuance of this blog. For many months, the break from blogging brought a sense of relief. However, recently, I've felt the pull to begin again.

I'll begin with an update on my brother-in-law, Dennis, whose care was the primary reason I felt the need to take a leave from blogging last year. Dennis was released from his seven-month stay in the hospital last October and moved into the apartment that Doug and I had found for him. He's wheelchair-bound but managing nicely, with the help of a wonderful home health aide, who visits him several times a week. She goes to doctor appointments with him, takes him on shopping trips and on other errands, cleans his apartment, and just generally makes it possible for Dennis to retain his independence.

Although I've felt the desire to blog again, it has come with some reservations. Prior to my backing off from blogging a year ago, I had begun to feel overwhelmed with the amount of time required to read and comment on the blogs of those who so faithfully visited mine. Those who did me the kindness of visiting my blog deserved the same consideration from me, but the process was becoming more burdensome than enjoyable.

So, as I return to blogging, I need to say that, while I welcome your visits and your comments, and will read and treasure every one of them, I can't promise to return visit for visit or comment for comment. If your comment settings include an email address, I will reply by email. Otherwise, especially if you have a question about the post, I'll post the answer in the comment section of that post.

I realize that, with these disclaimers, there will be some who will prefer not to leave comments, and I totally understand that. No hard feelings.

I've Got Nothin'

It's been over a week since I last posted anything here, and I apologize to anyone who may have been waiting with bated breath for my next installment. I don't know what is going on with me, but I just haven't had any blogging inspiration lately.

I look at my blog every day and feel guilty about not having anything interesting to write about. Then I consider following in Suldog's footsteps and signing off of blogging permanently. Then I think, "But I may have something to share somewhere down the road." Then I think, "But I can't expect people to still be interested by then."

So, instead of spending my time in creating an interesting blog post, I'm spending it in arguing with myself.

For now anyway, I'll just say that I will keep the blog alive; I just can't promise regular posting to it.

Now watch...a marvelous blog post idea will probably come to me as soon as I click "Publish" on this one.

Hilary

My friend, Hilary, posted a "mystery image" on her blog, which went up shortly after midnight last night (or should that be "this morning"?) She challenged her readers to guess what the image is. After staring at the image until my eyes crossed, I sent her an e-mail, which led to a humorous exchange. Those of you who read Hilary's blog are already well aware of her quick wit and way with words. The following is just a small example:

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Linda wrote at 12:44 a.m.:

Well, you’ve got me stumped with that confusing image. My first thought was that it might be the cribbage board that you and CA used last weekend. Now, I’ve never even seen a cribbage game, so I didn’t know what it looked like. I just spent several minutes searching through images of cribbage boards to see if I could spot anything that looked like your image. I didn’t, but I thought you’d get a kick out of this image that I did find: 

Linda

(I wasn't sure if I had the right to include the image on this blog, so I'll just tell you that it was a cribbage board in the shape of a toilet seat.)
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Hilary responded at 12:57 a.m.:

Ha.. now that looks more like it should be for poker.. it's a royal flush. ;)

Hilary

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Linda wrote at 12:57 a.m.:

You did it again! I’m sitting here laughing. I’m going to bed now. :)

Linda

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Hilary responded at 1:03 a.m.:

Me too. The potty's over. It's time to call it a day... ;)

G'nite, Linda. :)

H

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Linda gets the last word at 1:04 a.m.:

I hope your driver’s license allows the donation of your mind to science.

Good night. :)

Linda

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One of the joys of blogging has been getting to "virtually" meet so many interesting people. And Hilary certainly falls into that category.

Thanks, Hilary!

When I started this blog, just over two months ago, I did some self-talk, convincing myself that I was doing it for my own enjoyment and that it wasn't important whether anyone else read it or commented. In fact, initially, the only people that I told about it were Sandra and Jenny, who had been the ones who pressured talked me into starting a blog. But, during the ensuing weeks, a few friends and family members became aware of it and began reading it and, at least occasionally, leaving comments.

Like everyone else who has a blog, I found myself checking my stats frequently. Then I found myself forgetting my earlier self-talk.

Sandra has faithfully read every post and left comments since day one. And then Hilary began reading and commenting. Sandra's comments are much appreciated, but not unexpected, since we're friends in real life. But it never fails to impress me that Hilary would take the time to read and comment on this baby blog.

And then, wonder of wonders, today I opened my blog and found STRANGERS commenting on my last post and congratulating me on POTW.  Bless Hilary's kind heart, she had included my post in her Posts of the Week today.

So this is a big Thank You to all of you who visited my blog because of Hilary's referral and an extra special thanks to Hilary for her kind words of encouragement and for linking to me on this week's POTW.

Sometimes, pictures are all I've got

Okay. It's happened. After ten posts, I'm out of things to say. Something may come to me eventually. Meanwhile, here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

August 27, 2010

This sunset photo was taken a few years ago.

A recent sunset at the reservoir

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches... (Proverbs 22:1a)

I spent some time last weekend with Sandra, of Add Humor and Faith...Mix Well, and her daughter, Jenny, of Chased by Children, as well as the three children who chase Jenny. As usual when Jenny and her mom are around a non-blogger, there is a little pressure exerted on the non-blogger to immediately correct that status.

I explained to them that I just didn't think I was clever enough to keep a blog interesting. Jenny gave me that look. You know the one. It says, "What you talkin' about, Willis?"...only my name isn't Willis. I said, "Oh, sure, I have occasional bursts of cleverness, but I can't count on having one when I need it." But did they listen? No. Instead, they started trying to think of a good name for my blog. Jenny's daughter, Co-Co, suggested "Bursts of Cleverness." We all liked that one, but I was afraid someone typing "cleverness" into a search engine would be mightily disappointed when they arrived at any blog I was writing.

But the blogging seed had been planted, and trying to think of a good blog name was keeping me awake nights. Honestly. I made a list of potential names and began checking availability, only to find that most of them were already taken. Some of them had been used only once, as much as 10 years ago; but, still, they were unavailable.

"To Behold the Beauty" was one of the first blog names that I had thought of, and I ran it by Doug today. He liked it. But then, later, after I had expressed some frustration over something, he said I should call it "Grumpy Old Woman Blog." His bruises should heal in a few days.