DAILY BLOGGING ROUTINES

 

ALL OF TONIGHT'S PHOTOS WERE TAKEN IN OUR FRONT YARD THIS AFTERNOON.  ORANGE ONE'S ARE TIGER LILY'S & THE WHITE ONE'S ARE HOSTA FLOWERS

As soon as I stepped out the door into the cooler air this morning I could feel my humidity depleted energy levels begin to rise.  After having dragged my butt around for weeks on end I found myself outside with the hedge trimmer & weed whacker taking care of some much needed & long neglected yard work.  Another coat of paint on the utility trailer panels & then if was over to the neighbor's to trim up a Magnolia tree & other shrubs.  If it hadn't been Sunday I would have fired up the mower & did some grass cutting as well.  It was a productive morning & I never hit my recliner for a snooze until 12:42 P.M. & that's about the time some humidity began to creep back in.

A very special thank you to our latest blog followers, Kathy & Robert from SEASHELLS & OVERALLS & Carol from CAROL K's JOURNEY.  Just when I had all but given up on our Follower's list, you folks rode into town & perked up my day:))  And thanks to Janna & Mike from TIN TEEPEE/LOG CABIN for pointing out my geographical error in yesterday's post.  The Kofa Mountains are indeed in Arizona & not California.

Well, in keeping with the latest 'Blogger Buzz' I figured I'd do one final blog on it with a slightly different perspective & tell you how a typical blog day goes for me.  I often wonder how & when other folks put their blogs together, where they get their ideas, favorite times of day for reading or writing blogs, what formats they use & in what sequence do they put things together like pics & text.  Do they use more than one computer & do they do their blogs all in one sitting or stretch it out though the day.  I used to do the whole thing after supper but I've kinda gotten away from that now.

My day begins in the dark because I am generally up around 5 a.m.  Beside my recliner on a small table sit's our older Toshiba laptop.  I have a cushioned Ikea laptop pad which the computer sits on.  I lean back in my cushy recliner as a floor lamp dimly lights the keyboard.  I sometimes have a little laptop Motormouse asleep on my lap as well.  (I got a big lap) Soft ambient music floats quietly out of the stereo while Kelly & the dogs are all sound asleep in various parts of the house.  I have the patio door beside me slightly open so I can hear the birds waking up.  Quite often it is a Cardinal who starts the day.

First site I always check on is my Hotmail account to have a look at what 'comments' have come in overnight & how much trouble I have gotten myself into.  Next, I check our Outlook Express email account & that is followed by Sitemeter where I see which way the previous day's  'visit' numbers have went.  Up or down.  This is followed by a look at our 'Feedjit site because that tells me which photo's people find interesting enough to look at.  From there it is off to check my Gmail account which in turn springboards me on to have a look at what's going on in my Facebook world & see who's doing what to whom.  My last stop is our own blog site to check my 'Shout' box & 'Follower's' section on the way to our blog list of fellow bloggers.  This is where I begin my blog reading for the day.  I try to read each blog as I go down the list & comment accordingly.  It is also at this time where I may or may not pick up an idea for the day's blog & as often as not I will begin the day's post at this time.  My whole morning blog routine generally averages about two & half hours.  In this time period I may also check some weather sites.  Might do some Google searches & web browsing as well.

At different periods during the day I check our desktop computer for any updates in our Hotmail or Outlook Express accounts.  Short snoozes in my recliner during the day may be coupled with adding a bit more to the upcoming blog via my laptop.  Generally around 5 in the afternoon I may have most of the blog roughly thought out & assembled.  I do it all in an Outlook Express email format on the laptop & after supper around 7 I email that copy to my Gmail account & then slip into the sunroom & pick it up on our desktop computer there.  I then copy & paste it into Live Writer on the desktop & make any changes where necessary & often add further content.  It is also at this time when I unload all the photos from the cameras into the Picasa program on the computer & begin the process of editing each & every photo.  Depending on the number of photos, this can take awhile.   When finished I add all the photos to the blog, re-read it a couple times looking for mistakes & decide if there is anything I should edit out.  If everything is OK I hit the 'Publish' button & away it goes.  Total time invested in putting the blog together from start to finish would probably add up to about 4 hours each day.  Sometimes longer if I have publishing problems.  My home blogging routine is much the same as my routine while we are traveling because I do everything basically the same way.  Only difference is different place, different time zone, & different comfy chair:))

I never ask Kelly to read the blog & see what she thinks because she's liable to tell me & that could alter my content.  She never asks what I am going to write about either which is just as well because I don't always know myself what I am going to write about.   I do my own editing & spell checks & keep my fingers crossed that I haven't messed anything up too bad.  Some mornings Kelly might point out a spelling error if she reads the blog & that's about it.   I don't know really know if she reads it or not all the time & I am just too darned afraid to ask.  It's just one of those things we don't talk about. 

Well, I just received a blunt comment in my Hotmail account on this past Friday's Do's & Don'ts post.  I knew when I wrote that post I would be walking a thin line on how it was going to be interpreted.  My intent was to help, not to hinder.   In hindsight I should probably not have used the word's 'do's & don'ts' because that just rattles people.  My mistake there & I have since gone back to the post & changed the title.  Yes, blogs are about anything you want to write about & what content you want to put in your blog, etc.  I was only suggesting that if you are interested in, & like to write about the NASCAR racing circuit , the Masters Golfing Classic, Motocross, wind surfing, basket weaving, or parental guidance seminars it might be better for your blog if you post it where people with like minded interests can read & comment on it.   And with the huge number of growing blogs it is just humanly impossible to keep up with everyone's blogs.  Wished I could, but I can't.  I have blogged about my feelings on this many times before & expressed my regrets about blogs slipping through the cracks but it's just the way it unfortunately is & until there is a way to replace the fallible human brain's memory cells with a state of the art mega memory computer chip I'm afraid people's feelings are going to be hurt & feather's ruffled.  I wish the commenter well & I do understand her hurt feelings.

GROANER'S CORNER:))  Three old guys are out walking.  First one says, 'Windy, isn't it?'
Second one says, 'No, it's Thursday!'
Third one says, 'So am I.......... let's go get a beer..'

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UN-AWAKENED"

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.