30,000

Today, Monday, November 8th, my blog has been read 30,000 times from around the world. If you have noticed the 5 digit counter in the top lefthand corner of the main page, you will now see at least 30,000. That is how we can see just how many people have read, loved or hated the variety of topics that I post on "the blog".

In another section of my blog, we can see exactly where my readers are located. Before 9:00 tonight, it showed that there had been 26,748 readings from people in the United States. The balance of the 3,252 readings came from people in South Korea, The Netherlands, the Philipines, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Germany, The United Kingdom (England), Spain, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovenia,
Denmark, Australia, China and Pakistan. Finding out that people from all over the globe had discovered my blog was an absolutely AMAZING shock to me!!! When an old classmate of mine had suggested that I start a blog, I only expected two people to ever read it--my sister, Lori, and me. It just boggles my mind that there would be anyone else out there who would be interested in anything that I had to say or write...

My blog has united me with my "big sis". That in itself made my blog so very, VERY worthwhile and important to me!!!

Through the blog, I have been able to inform people of obituaries in Wichita, Greeley, Scott and Finney Counties.

I have updated people around here of school events, etc.

At times, my family has been put into a "fishbowl" of sorts. Some of you probably think that I post too much about these people whom I love. Believe me, I never post anything that is too personal to any of my family members.

You have had the chance to see the humorous side of me as well as the sad and angry sides.

You have provided me with the opportunity to voice my feelings--good or bad--with all of you. Given the fact that I am bi-polar, you are probably in awe at times when you see the very deep or the very high "moods" that I go through and are consequently written on the pages of my blog.

Through my writings, a good number of you have been outraged by various comments that I have posted here. Some of those people have left their comments here, emailed them to me or told me in person that they did not care for my particular opinion. In some cases, I have returned later on to delete the posts that were not up-to-snuff.

My blog has allowed me to reconnect with my family, friends, neighbors, etc whom I have had little or no contact with for many years. And, it has given me wonderful new friendships such as with LA-W.

All-in-all, I want to thank YOU for agreeing to meet me here whenever you have had the time. I only hope that I have not totally outraged a single one of you. I have a strong personality in some ways. At times, even though I maybe should not "share" my current moods with all of the folks right here, I usually do it anyway. The older and the wiser that I get, the more that I realize just how much my Daddy rubbed off on me. If you had the blessing of having Pat Elder in your life, you know that he was always straight forward with the people whom he came to know in his world. If he didn't appreciate you for one reason or another, he told you. Daddy was never the kind of person whom you wondered if he liked ya' or not. His feelings for you were quite easy for you to read!

Through my aging, I also see more and more of my darling Mama in myself. She is absolutely the nicest, sweetest and truest person you could ever know. I wish that more of her goodness was much easier to see in me!!!

Bottom line, I will keep on writing as long as people are willing to read my posts.

God bless you...He blesses me often. Case in point, he blessed ME with YOU!!!

VLE-B