Tuesday Tangents on Thursday – “No Theme” Edition

I touched on this in yesterday’s post too, but in case you missed it:

You may recall that I promised to donate $1 per comment received on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday’s posts to the Red Cross for Haitian earthquake relief. You’ve helped me raise over $40, which I added to the donation my family was already intending to make and sent to the Red Cross yesterday. Thank you for all of your comments here over the weekend! (And if you’d like to make your own donation, please feel free to use the widget in my blog’s sidebar.)

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Whenever I comment on a blog that uses word verification, I’m considering mentioning the “word” I get within the comment itself. Sometimes it’s an actual word, and sometimes it’s something that has word-like potential. Occasionally, it’s somehow relevant to the post or the comment, which always amuses me. Do you ever pay attention to those “words” yourself?

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I write about a couple dozen checks a year. I’ve paid bills online for a while, and have eagerly used my debit/check card for in-person shopping for well over a decade (I’m not as comfortable using it online). I sometimes forget not everyone has embraced these things, though, and then I get stuck in line at the grocery store behind someone paying with a check – it always surprises me that anyone still does that! Do you? Personally, I’m very happy that I don’t have to cart a checkbook around with me any more – even the doctor’s office takes Visa and MasterCard now.

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According to Feedburner, this blog broke the 500-subscriber threshold on Tuesday, after inching close to it for weeks. Then again, Feedburner also showed subscribers in the low 300’s a couple of days last week, so I’m not entirely sure I trust it, whether the news is good or bad. Still, I couldn’t help being excited to see that 500+, even if only for a day. How much do you obsess about your blog stats?

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We’ve had a drought in California for a few years, and while we’ve been getting rain just dumped on us here in SoCal this week, it’s premature to assume the drought is over. The rain is welcome…up to a point. The mudslides it brings to areas that were burned during last year’s fire season are not so welcome. The thunderstorms and tornadoes (yes, really!) that it’s brought this week are unusual and quite unwelcome, especially around my house. They’ve actually pushed us to make a difficult decision we’ve been struggling with for months. I’m not ready to talk about it here yet, but I’ll probably need to talk about it soon, just to help myself sort though it.

In the meantime, I may be around less than usual during the next week or so. But enough about me – what tangents are you going off on lately?

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8 comments

  1. Seriously, can't we just have some NORMAL rain that doesn't cause flooding but helps our drought conditions?
    And will people PLEASE turn off their automatic timers on their watering mechanisms? I just about lost my mind when our apt building's sprinklers went on per usual at 8 pm the other night. The flower beds have been watered enough today, thanks!

  2. Congratulations on donating so much money to Haiti – that is really wonderful of you!

    I've never thought about writing the word verification word in the comment – that would make no sense 99% of the time – but might be fun to try! LOL!

    Feedburner stats fluctuate a lot, so you probably are near to 500 – I'm sure you'll be back there soon!

  3. I saw that about the tornadoes out there. That is crazy! We are used to that stuff out here, though when the sirens go off now I'm more concerned since we have kids to worry about.

    I hope all is okay in your area. I haven't heard much about mudslides, so I'm assuming they are not as bad as they can be.

  4. I DO pay attention to the words that come up in the word verification tool. I've often thought it would be fun to keep track of all of them for a week and then as part of my Sunday Salon to try and write a paragraph using all of the words for the week. I still think it's a fun idea but I haven't been organized enough to keep track!

  5. Someone needs to burn Feedburner. I've listened to blogger rant over that crazy thing. And the Google follower widget is no better. There are blogs I know I was following through that and one day, I wasn't. I didn't do it. I know they didn't do it. (Yes, I asked…lol.) If I'm dropped, I know others are.

  6. April – It's feast or famine, isn't it? And I'm totally with you about turning off the sprinklers – what a waste!

    Jackie (FarmLaneBooks) – The credit for at least part of that donation belongs to my readers and commenters :-). And you noticed that my Feedburner numbers were back under 500 today too, huh?

    Mike – Yeah, I haven't missed tornadoes and thunderstorms since I moved here. I was not happy to see them this week.

    So far so good with the mudslides…

    Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I'm with you on that. I'm vaguely put out when I actually have to write a check myself :-).

    Kathleen – Oh, that does sound like a fun idea! I'll be looking forward to seeing that paragraph one of these days.

    Michelle (MyBooksMyLife) – That's probably why you see more check-writing in the grocery store. Some people just stick to what they know.

    J. Kaye – I wish there was at least one single, reliable source for blog stats. They all seem seem to have one glitch or another, and it's frustrating!