Blogging since 2004

Holly left a comment recently stating that she can't believe it's been three years since we moved back here behind the barn; she wondered how long she's been reading my blog.  Well, Holly, it's been a lot longer than three years.  I know this because we were fellow J-landers at first; we did our blogging on AOL Journals.  
When AOL journals shut down, we were able to transfer those journals over to Blogger; I'm so glad for this, because there are a lot of memories in the words I put out into the Blogosphere back then.  My granddaughters were staying here after school and during summers, and we had lots of adventures.  I was still holding down a job.  My mother died in 2004, the year I started the journal.  It's a shame that I stored so many pictures on AOL, because they shut down their picture-sharing site along with journals; so while my blog entries made the trip to Blogger just fine, the pictures were lost.  I do have them all on my computer, thank goodness.   
Because my son lives in Georgia, I thought it would be interesting back then to find some bloggers in that great state; you know, so I could sort of keep my finger on the pulse of Georgia and perhaps know what was going on in my son's world.  Many of them still blog; Holly is one of those.  I went over to My Country Life to see if I could find an early comment from her, but I got tired of looking.  I was amazed, though, to see how many of my original commenters are still in touch with me, one way or the other.    
Other Georgia folks I got to know back then are Carlene and Celeste; Cliff and I met Celeste and her husband on our way home from a visit with our son.  I was right here reading Carlene's blog when she shared the awful news that she had lost her husband, Danny.  
Early on in my AOL days, I searched for some Kansas City bloggers.  I didn't realize what a small forum AOL Journals really was, and I only found a handful.  One local has remained with me:  Toonguy.  He was, I believe, my first commenter, and I'm sure I was his.  He had an online friend, Sim, who followed his blog and mine; and rather than keep a public journal, Sim put his thoughts in mine and Toonguy's comment sections.  My daughter and I met Toon and Sim face to face, as well as Anne, who doesn't blog these days... but she's on Facebook with me; and these days her husband is our dermatologist.  True! 
Once I moved to Blogger, I found more Kansas City blogs than I ever imagined existed.  I get most of my local news these days from Tony's Kansas City; I never link to him because he insists on putting pictures of almost-naked women on each and every entry.  I'm not a prude, but it cheapens women, in my opinion.  Plus, the pictures he uses make me look really bad by comparison.  He and two lady Kansas City bloggers I follow were on the local public radio station yesterday, and I enjoyed hearing the voices of people whose words have only been in print, in my world.  May's Machete has shocked me a time or two... I don't get out much... but I like her.  Average Jane claims not to be all that average; perhaps not, but she seems quite normal by my standards.  I've read her for quite a while, too.  


I hate to single anyone out, but I have two favorite local bloggers.  Meesha, the only Jewish person I've ever met... and the only person born in Russia!  And Dave, a photographer who has a wonderful Kansas City picture blog.  He's the culprit who kept insisting I needed to switch to an Apple computer, so I hold him personally responsible for the fact that Apple won't let me upgrade my Ipad to the new model; if it weren't for him, I'd never have owned an Apple product.  Neither of these guys has been on the radio, although I'm pretty sure if someone got the two of them together, they could do an interesting comedy skit.    
Blogging has made my life so much more interesting, not because of the words I put out there, but because of the commenters and fellow bloggers whose words and pictures I take in every day.  
This is the best hobby I've ever had.