Speaking of visitors...

There is someone who regularly visits this blog who lives in France.  You can see the statistics on this screenshot I took.  

Ever day the person comes here from a link at THIS BLOG, which I have followed since the old AOL Journal days.   
Hello, France!  Feel free to comment here, any old time.  

What day is it?

I think it's Sunday.  Cliff's been off work for over a week, we had our Thanksgiving yesterday instead of Thursday, and I've lost all track of time.  Cliff has decided he's going to love retirement.  For seven more months, though, he'll have to hit the old time clock.  
I had a close call with our turkey.  It took an hour longer than I expected to get done, and I was really sweating it, what with all those hungry faces out in the shop.  Yes, we had Thanksgiving dinner in Cliff's shop!  

People said everything was good.  I wouldn't know:  I had three servings of twenty-four-hour salad and three servings of cranberry salad.  No turkey, no dressing.  Not even any noodles.  I decided to focus on two dishes I absolutely love, but very seldom make.  I didn't make pumpkin pie, nor any other kind of pie, this year.  I made Oreo Delight, pumpkin squares (squash squares, actually, with pureed squash from the freezer), and a peach cobbler (with peaches from the freezer).  I went over budget, but will make it up next week, I'm sure.  
Noodles are not optional at our Thanksgiving dinner.  They are required.  In fact, we'd ban turkey before we'd get rid of the noodles.  When I was growing up, no big family meal was served at my grandma's house without noodles, so it's a nostalgia thing for me.  My oldest granddaughter never eats anything except noodles and mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving, and I usually send most of the leftover noodles home with her.  
We opted out of going to Cliff's brother's on Thanksgiving Day in order to avoid temptation for Cliff.  
Yesterday, though, it was no holds barred.  I looked the other way and let Cliff have at it; it's one day a year, after all.  I'll probably turn a blind eye on his partaking of a few of the leftovers today, too.
It was an enjoyable day, all told.  The oldest grandson and his girl friend stayed around and visited for quite a while, along with Cliff's sister and her husband.  We had lots of laughs.  


Have any of my readers ever bought a fresh turkey, as opposed to frozen?  Every year it seems more water has been pumped into my bird, and I get tired of paying 69 cents a pound for water!  I wonder if fresh turkeys have all that liquid added to them.  
I realize many people have no problem paying a big price for water:  I watch folks everywhere paying $8 per gallon for bottled water (that's what it comes to if you buy it in plastic bottles which, by the way, aren't very good for you or the environment).   Yes, I used to do it too, but the Oregon guy converted me; Guy won't be converting me to his atheistic beliefs, but he got me on this one.  Ha!


I received a wonderful surprise in my mailbox Saturday:  Vicki, the lady who once gave me an egg beater that she no longer used, wrote a letter to tell me a little about herself.  My blog, she wrote, was the first one she ever read.  She discovered it around the time that my dog, Mandy, was killed by a car, and has gone on to read other blogs I've recommended.  Mine, she says, is still her favorite.  
Vicki is my age, got married around the same time I did, and has children in the same age range as mine.  She lost her husband in 1991; a month after that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  In 1995 she had three heart attacks.  Her neighbors "fixed her up" with a man, and in 1998 she remarried.  
As I sit here and toss words into this thing we call cyberspace, I often wonder about the people who read my blog.  Of course some of my readers have blogs of their own, so I feel I know something about them.  It's the others I'm always curious about, the "anonymous" ones:  What leads them here?  Why do they find this drivel interesting?  
Thanks, Vicki, for introducing yourself to me, for letting me know about some of your trials and triumphs.  Thanks also for reminding me how good it feels to go to the mailbox and find written words put down on paper.  I had forgotten how much more satisfying that is than email.
By the way, I used your mother's egg beater about twenty times in the last three days.    


Wow, this turned into quite a ramble, didn't it?  I'm heading to the fridge to get myself some cranberry salad for breakfast.

Meet some more of my readers

Since not everybody reads the comments on my blog, I'm sharing what these readers had to say.

 Sherry said.. OK: I'm a long time reader that does not comment on blogs much, but I love to read about 50 of them, I love your style and your down home, say-it-like-it-is attitude, love the stories and I can relate to almost all of them.......hugs, Sherry  

It's good to meet you, Sherry.  Thanks for your words of encouragement.

 Rural Rambler said...Good Morning Donna! I am a regular reader here. I am not always silent :) I enjoy reading about you and your husband's plans to retire and your bike trips. Oh and I just enjoy all your posts really. I found YOU through MY sitemeter. And your right, embarq has us living some places I have never heard of!
I am conflicted about sitemeter. It kinda creeps me out and actually keeps me from going to some blogs. Not just sitemeter but all the counters and locators. No privacy if I want to come back here a hundred times in one hour or stay here for three.
I have a Nook and I love it. Still like library books and buying books but it sure is convenient out here in the boonies!  

Sitemeter needn't keep you from visiting certain blogs.  If you want to remain anonymous, instead of clicking on the link to the blog, right-click and choose the option "open link in incognito window".  It will still tell your operating system and your IPS, but location and other information will be "unknown".

 Lucy said...I am not new but have not been coming in until a few months ago. I like your entries so I keep coming back. 

Yes Lucy, I visit your blog occasionally, and I have it listed on my sidebar.

Nancy said...I read regularly and have for a long time. I normally leave comments as nerves05 but my name is Nancy, I speak every now and then. I enjoy reading your blog and is one of the first i open everyday. I don't remember how i stumbled upon your blog but i read it once and been coming back every since. I live in Florida. Never been up north ever. But i'm a country girl. Most folks don't think florida is country. but it is. It's not all beaches, bikinis and fast lifestyles and transplants. I'm a true floridian born and raised who lives in and loves the woods. Which is why i love your blog. Your simple easy going life style appeals to me. Believe me when i say that it's a true complement.
I love animals. I have hogs, chickens, dogs so your stories are interesting to me. I love food and gardening so i like hearing about that as well. And i love to hear about you and Cliff, just hearing about how you guys, enjoy each others company is just wonderful.
I'm 37 i'd like to think myself and my hubby will be the same way in another 20 years.
So thats my introduction and how and why i hang around :-)  

Nancy, I remember you from way back, but now I know where you live and something about your lifestyle.  Thanks for this.  Cliff and I visited Florida once to go to a tractor show!  The state is a little sandy for our tastes, but I've found that when you are born and raised in a certain part of the country, it's home sweet home.

Forty Pound Sack said...Hi Donna - I visit your blog often but this is my first comment to you. I honestly can't remember how I found you the first time but I, too read your mother's story and loved it. It made me think of my own mother, who is busy trying to untangle the roots of her family tree. I'm pretty good at snooping on the net, so once in a while I get to help her search someone out. I have a 99% success rate, so far, so hopefully she's let me continue helping.
I love your stories!

I have a cousin who is doing genealogy on both hers and her husband's families.  It exhausts me to see how much research she has done.  I don't have the patience, but I certainly enjoy seeing the fruits of her labors.  I'm sure my mother would be thrilled to know how many people are enjoying her story.  She was a great story-teller, and as a child I loved to hear about how things were "in the olden days".  

If anyone else wants to step up and share, feel free; I love hearing from all of you, and I imagine my other readers do too.