It’s three years and going!

Gallery

Posted on by
Courtesy of sweetclipart.com

Courtesy of sweetclipart.com

Without readers there are no writers!

It’s been three years since I started this blog. Holy cow!

Blogging has been good to me in unforeseen ways.

I learned how to operate my camera AND download (or is it upload?) photos. I found out fast that finding photos online was a crapshoot. The best ones have a watermark that’s distracting. It’s easier to snap your own even if they are crooked and out of focus.

Now that I know how to use my camera, I had to learn how to use Photoshop to crop and brighten the dark blurry shadows I photograph.

That led to all sorts of things….mostly my friends and family running away every time they see me with a camera. (Sometimes just when they see me!)

“Don’t take my picture!”

“You’re not going to blog about this are you?”

“Silly, of course I am” which is way better than the alternative “You’re much too boring to blog about.”

I have been told that I disguise identities. Of course I do. Otherwise my house would have been firebombed long ago. (My cousin Guido is a nut job.)

Word Press changes things about the time I understand how it works. I hate that new “Beep, Beep, Boop” screen. It freezes my computer and takes longer to download the “post new” screen. It’s easier (and faster) to create from the Dashboard page now. (Sorry for you non-bloggers, don’t even try to figure this out!)

My computer is on the verge of death. It wore out. We have a symbiotic relationship and it’s just exhausted. (It doesn’t like to boogey all night!) It’s pulling the “old age card” on me.

You know what that means. I will upgrade to Windows 8.something and Office 13. I will spend days trying to figure out the simplest tasks. It will crash. I will swear (nicely of course). I’m so excited I can hardly wait! (Better wear my Depends!)

Aside from all that, I am most grateful to you who have taken the time to read my humble blog. Without readers all this is drivel and doodles. Thanks for making it legit!

As Charlton Heston said, “You can have my keyboard, when you pry it from my cold dead fingers! (He did say that, didn’t he? I’m pretty sure that’s what he really meant!)

59 thoughts on “It’s three years and going!”

  4. Happy 3 year blogiversary! Very exciting.
    I also get the “are you going to blog this?” question when I take pictures or do things with the certain people in my life who know my blog exists. It makes for some interesting reactions.

    Like

    Reply ↓

  10. Kate … Happy 3rd Anniversary to you. I so enjoy your blog and thank you for suggesting that I write about my old friend, Mr. Musser. He’s been on my mind, but it was your nudge that prompted me to write about him. I’ll be celebrating my 3rd anniversary later this month.

    You’ve posted 470 essays? Wow! I feel like a piker. I’ve only written about 165 posts during that same time period. Keep ’em comin’, Kate. I love hearing about your cats, your hubby and your days in p.r. 😉

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Thanks! I enjoy your stories too and I’m glad you wrote about Mr. Musser. Everyone has someone like that in their lives although they don’t often live down the hall. My Uncle Joe lived over our garage. When I was a child he was “old” and retired. I often spent my day with him while he gardened and worked in the yard. I always enjoyed his company.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  13. Congratulations on your third year anniversary, Kate! That’s great! I’m coming up on my second year which is hard to believe. Time sure flies when you’ve got post deadlines. 🙂 Keep it up my friend, we all love you!

    Like

    Reply ↓

  15. Hey Kate, Congratulations on a super 3 years of blogging such funny, wonderful posts. So enjoyable…you’re extremely quick and clever.
    I agree that some bloggers ‘wear out’ and become discouraged.
    Like you, I love writing/blogging…well, I really just love communicating. I’m surprised that my blog runs from 60 readers up on each post. You said it…without readers there are no writers…they keep me going.
    And I’m sure Charlton/Moses/Ben-Hur said that concerning his keyboard.
    I think my computer is about ready for retirement, too….it is really mis-behaving and getting my goat.
    Great post full of your always great style! Love it.

    Like

    Reply ↓

  17. Congratulations on your three year anniversary. I always enjoy your posts–your humor, your cats, and getting to know your home and family. Somehow, you make blogging look easy. I’ve only been at it for a year, and I’m already worried about running out of material. You’re right, blogging pushes us to learn new things. I’m just starting to learn how to use my camera. I haven’t tried Photoshop yet.

    Like

    Reply ↓

  19. Congratulations on surviving and thriving. Most of the blogs I started following three years ago have closed shop.

    Creative drive pushes one into new areas, doesn’t it? WordPress and You Tube have forced me to learn stuff. Before I knew it, people started asking me for advice. Whenever someone asks me a technology question, I’m like, “Are you sure you have the right person?” I imagine they figure that I’m just dumb enough to be patient when explaining it.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • I’m putting you on my list of people that I go to for stupid questions. Amazingly I am the computer wizard in the house (that’s really not saying much) but I owe a lot of it to blogging. There seems to be a life cycle for a blog and I think it’s between 18 months to just under 3 years. A lot go on hiatus never to return or post considerably less frequently. Or maybe they change the name of their blog to get away from me. I wonder what the real statistics say.

      Like

      Reply ↓

      • I’d imagine some people get put off by lack of traffic. My current blog is my second. The first was a satirical news blog (a bit like the Onion). I think I did some good stuff on there, but it was not interactive and wasn’t the kind of thing people felt the need to come back and read again. It is hard to stay motivated when you spend 2-3 hours crafting a post that maybe 10 people see. As a would-be novelist, I finally recognized the importance of self-promotion through social media, so I canned that other thing and started the one you’ve read. I assumed no one would give a lick about me and my novel-in-progress, but what do you know? My readership went up dramatically. I think some bloggers who quit after 18 months simply haven’t found their niche.

        Like

        Reply ↓

  20. Happy Blogiversary. Three years of conversation and cat photos, and ponds and frogs, and family reunions or house renovations, and of course, the ladies at the gym. Your blog posts invariably make me smile, and sometimes when you get serious, you get me to thinking. Your blog has always remained one of my favorites. Even though I’m on hiatus from my own blog, more or less, it still is fun to drop by for a visit now and then. Congrats on three years! 🙂

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Thanks to you for all of your help in setting me up. Also, answering my frantic emails when something went wonky! You made me press publish that first time (which is the most traumatic!) and I found out that nothing bad happens.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  22. At first I thought you were bowing out as a few of my favorite bloggers have done (out of sheer exhaustion). I am a devoted reader of your thought provoking posts and delighted that you are “still going.” Congratulations Kate on 3 years of blogging! And I’m sure Charlton Heston said that even if he didn’t own a keyboard.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • I know. Some of the bloggers I first met are gone and some post less. I try not to burn myself out. I really enjoy using my brain (to bad it’s not for something really important like solving world peace).

      Like

      Reply ↓

Don't be shy, I'd love to hear what you're thinking!