I began this blog in 2009, at the end of my first full year
caring for mother as she entered her losing battle with Alzheimer’s. I was
beginning to get frustrated and feelings of loneliness and abandonment started
sinking in. I knew life was only going to get tougher for me, and I was having
a marital crisis of my own. I was working a high demand job that required the
utmost of confidentiality and diplomacy. I felt like I was at the top of a downhill road in a vehicle with no brakes. I was certain to crash at the bottom of what was sure to be a rough ride.
Writing has been part of my life for a very long time. I wrote news and humorous articles for the church newsletters, I wrote devotionals for the annual devotional booklet. I have written poetry for quite some time, much of which has been lost in moves over the years before technology allowed me to hang on to it.
Writing has been part of my life for a very long time. I wrote news and humorous articles for the church newsletters, I wrote devotionals for the annual devotional booklet. I have written poetry for quite some time, much of which has been lost in moves over the years before technology allowed me to hang on to it.
I began posting pieces already written. Then memories of my
life with kids, dogs and cats began to flood my noggin. Escapades with mother
made writing even easier. You simply can’t make up anything funnier than the
truth. Writing was a relief and the posts were a way to share the stories of my
life with my friends and family scattered across the country.
Out of curiosity, I put a hit counter on the blog, never
knowing the system had a stats page. The hit counter didn’t give me an accurate
look at what was going on because it counted every time I opened it to make
corrections, and boy, were there a lot of corrections! I was writing in a hurry
at lunch. I was writing in the dark of the night. I was writing with a whiskey
in one hand. Yeah, I just admitted to that. Oh, wait, correct that to a whiskey
in each hand on occasion. Uh, maybe more than one. Okay, more than two or
three. Alright!!! Way more than that!
I knew I couldn’t allow comments because many of my readers
were connected to churches I either served as administrative staff or as the
church musician. I have a couple of bikers in Oklahoma who follow the blog (old school
mates) and the possibility of colorful language had to be deterred. I only have
a couple of followers who have clipped themselves to the blog.
Then I discovered the stats page on Blogspot. The stats
page tells the number of page views for the day, the week, the month and all
time. It includes the actual posts being read, the audience across the world
and the traffic sources. I was blown away. I expected thirty to fifty people
because I can count family and friends, and all of them are located in the United States .
The only out of country reader I expected was my niece deployed
overseas. But the day I discovered the stats page was a mind blower.
Above and beyond the US ,
my readers hail from Germany ,
Russia , United Kingdom , Taiwan ,
China , Romania , Saudi
Arabia , France ,
Netherlands, Ireland and Japan. Someone from Brazil just popped up overnight.The list is in the order of
most viewed to least viewed. I know a few of my friends who read, but I am
baffled about the others. I had no clue that when you Googled “The Poets Quill” it
would pop up as if I had some tech person create a link on the internet for
me. The first post that comes up is “The Trumpet and Other Bungles.” I was
astounded. Then something struck me, and I became even more curious than before.
Who the heck are you people and how boring is your life that
my goofy stories bring you to the blog for entertainment? Are some of you guys
passing this along to your buddies saying, “Here’s a story about some old lady
in a restroom stall trying to start a new roll of toilet paper with her panties
at her knees and her left arm holding her dress and coat up away from the
toilet seat.” “Now she’s living with her ex-husband. That sounds crazy to me.” Let me just say – it can
happen to anyone. It just seems that the planets align just right for some sort
of interstellar pull to make my life more whacked out than most.
You know what I look like because there are several photos
of me on the blog – one with Lil’ Buddy and the bio piece on the front page.
I would also like to see who is out there reading.
I’ve also been advised to start a Twitter account for my
readers. I set one up. I haven't tinkered around with it enough to know anything
about it, but check me out. Watch for that hash tag thingy to show up soon. I think I need to make a trip to Fort Worth to have a Twitter training session with my daughter and her techno-geek husband. I'll be a Techno-Granny in no time.
