A FEW THOUGHTS ON BLOGGING.....AND SOME OKLAHOMA CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

EUFAULA STATE PARK, OKLAHOMA...... CHRISTMAS LIGHT EXHIBITION-DECEMBER 2006

Rick, a fellow RV blogger out on Vancouver Island accidentally deleted 155 treasured photos a few days ago. I think we all have had those heart stopping moments of sheer terror at one time or another but Rick got right on the problem & went chasing after those deleted photos. He hopped on the web & searched out a program for recovering lost files, documents, & photos etc. Wasn't long & he had replaced that terror with joy at getting things back on track again. Hop on over to RICK'S blog & see how he did it because he lays everything out in detail plus he has the website program site he used to recover his lost photos. HAD A NICE RV SITE RIGHT BESIDE EUFAULA LAKE & WE WERE THE ONLY ONE'S IN THE WHOLE PARK:))

While on the topic of blogs I'd like to comment on a few things I've noticed over the past couple of blogging years. It took me awhile to understand what this blogging thing was all about & how it worked. Just couldn't get the concept in my head but finally one day while toiling over the BLOGGER website, a few pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place & I began to put to-gether a blog page. Discovered there were many widgets & gadgets that could be added on the site to jazz it up & really make it sparkle so I quickly added music & a slide show right off the bat & it wasn't long I had a cute little black cat wandering around all over the site as well. Probably had some fireworks & sparklers thrown in for good measure too. Lots of neat-O things to add. Or, so I thought!! Being new to blogging I had overlooked a few things & it took some kindly fellow bloggers to suggest to me some do's & don'ts. All those add-ons take time to load so the more flirting flamingos, pooping pelicans, or bouncing bears you have on your site the harder it is going to be for many people to access it. Many folks out there are still stuck with dial-up connections & if you have a lot of warm fuzzies on your site those people are not going to be able to access your blog. Some bloggers add music to their sites & that really bogs things down for slow connection people. Couple that with a slide show & all the dial-up folks are toast. Music, slide shows, & videos really kill bandwidth for the air card people as well. When we were traveling last winter we switched from a satellite dish connection over to a 5GB Verizon air card so we had to quickly learn how to conserve our precious bandwidth. I upload a lot of photos everyday so we have to be careful not to go over the 5GigaBite limit. Whenever I came across anybody's web or blogger site that had music playing I automatically canceled it right away which was unfortunate because there were some bloggers out there that I never did get to read. And personally, I am very picky about the kind of music I listen to so when I click on a site & have my eardrums shredded by the likes of Whitney Houston, Maria Carey, or Metallica, I don't take too kindly to that. Some bloggers totally load their sites with advertising & you really have to search for the actual blog itself. I don't spend time searching anymore & as soon as I see pop up ads, flashing banners, or big ads for this or that I immediately hit the little red X button & I'm out of there with not much probability of returning. I understand the logic of generating some revenue for the site & see nothing wrong with that if it's done with common sense & good taste. The priority of your site should be the quality of your blog & not the size of your wallet. If I could figure out a sure fire way of adding a little advertising about something I believed in I would consider it, but so far, advertising on blogs just leaves me a little on the cold side!! Noticed yesterday on our Sitemeter stat counter that we have surpassed 50,000 hits on our blogsite. Who would have ever thunk it....eh:)) Our heat wave has blown out of the area & I've already switched from my short sleeve shirt to my long sleeve one. My absolute favorite time of the year is approaching. Won't be long & the big box stores will be replacing all the back to school stuff on the shelves with some Halloween paraphernalia & then it will be right into the full blown retail Christmas Season. And just to get you started on that track I have a few photos I took back in December of 06 in an Oklahoma State Park called EUFAULA formally known as Fountainhead. It was a long day & I had earlier managed to get ourselves lost in the Ozark Mountains over in nearby Arkansas. Had one of my instant brain waves that morning while approaching Joplin Missouri that I would take a short cut down highway 59 thus avoiding having to go through Oklahoma City later. After many twisty up & down curvy roads it was mid afternoon before we finally found our way out of the forest & headed across the State Line into Oklahoma. Kelly located a State Park on the map that looked like it was in the general area of where we were headed so by late afternoon, tired & totally worn out, we pulled into Eufaula State Park.
WE EVEN MANAGED TO SCROUNGE UP A FEW COLORED LIGHTS OURSELVES

As is so often the case at this time of year, we were the only ones there. That is always sooooo great when that happens. Reason being of course is because it's December & really cold out. This day was no exception!! It was immediately apparent that we had stumbled into something special here though because all around a large circular roadway about the size of a football field stood all these frameworks of various Christmas theme decorations. We were told by a fellow out for a walk that at night all these Christmas lights were lit up & people came from far & wide to drive through the park & view the spectacle. So, as soon as it got dark I grabbed my camera & we went out for a quiet winter's night walk in a wonderland of Christmas lights. Didn't have a tri-pod with me so some of the pics are a bit wobbly......................:)) GROANER'S CORNER:(( George Bernard Shaw once said to Winston Churchill:"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend.... if you have one. " Winston Churchill, in response said, "Cannot attend first night, will attend second... if there is one."

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.