Blossoming lupine!
Hello, everyone! Ohmygoodness, it’s been QUITE a weekend. I am completely undone.
One of my worst traits (this is time for Confession) is an absolute obsession with WordPress hits and comments at times. I apologize for this in advance. (Darn it, can’t we all be perfect? My ideal goal in life is to Not Care. To be ego-less and blase and not even look at stats.)
Alas. It’s not even in the cards–yet. Perhaps next week. I’m working on it.
I became obsessed with stats when lots & lots of people decided to check out my Facebook letter of May 21st. The WordPress Front Page “Freshly Pressed” decided to feature it all weekend…and that’s when I kinda lost interest in everything else in life. Obsessed, I tell ya. It’s so challenging. As one of my commenters so kindly pointed out when discussing on-line obsessions, “Get a life!”
Sunlight illuminates tree top at dusk
The Facebook blog hit the front page of WordPress. Good & dandy! And then over 11,800 visitors stopped by to agree, disagree or turn away in some sort of speechlessness thinking who-knows-what.
But here’s what happened since hitting the front page of WordPress: I became totally addicted to Ms. Computer. Stared at the stats chart every hour (I am lying to you–it was more than once an hour. You don’t want to know how often) to discover how many people were stopping by. And it was zinging skyward at times to 300-400 hits an hour!! Ohmygoodness!! Craziness, dear readers. Craziness.
I called my parents. Talked with both kids. Barry, thank the lucky stars, seems to care about this as much (or me) than me. He keeps murmuring (like an ideal husband): “I love your blog, Kathy. I love your blog.” Of course, this is because he’s a newspaper editor and writes his own column every week. He looks at this blog as an equal to his column. (Note to self: Kathy, do tell your husband you love his column every week. C’mon! See if you can be equal to this!)
Soft pine needles surround growing spring cone
As for responding to comments individually when 171 people have voiced their opinions: no can do. Something in the brain shuts down. It refuses to cooperate. The hypnotized stat-staring crazy lady remains riveted before the computer, but she cannot Respond. Don’t ask why. It’s one of those Mysteries.
I figure it’s not important for me to say anything more anyway–it’s simply a forum to discuss our common ambivalent feelings…
Plant...log...sunlight...the simple things in life.
But you regular readers have missed out on so much during this mute weekend! You guys simply wouldn’t believe what happened. First of all, a little chipmunk decided to pull each and every one of our peas from the garden earth. Not even eat them! Just pull them up, maybe nibble, and leave them lying stranded and uprooted above the soil. What kind of craziness is this? Worse than any Facebook craziness, I can tell you!
Second…are you ready to hear some more of our foolishness? Because I was so obsessed with the computer, Barry kept luring me out of the house. “Let’s go out to eat!” he insisted. Three times. I kid you not.
The first time we went to Houghton. Friday night. To get our weekly organic vegetables. To shop. Yes, it was (mostly) appropriate.
The next morning he looked around the house and asked, “Where is my coffee cup?”
I, of course, was staring at the computer and could not respond. He then said in a spiritedly way, “Of course, it must be in the car!”
He looked in the driveway and then slowly walked toward the computer.
“Kathy, where is our car?” he asked resignedly. (With resign because we have exhibited this behavior before…)
Dandelion puff at dusk
His car was not in the driveway. That’s when it hit us. I had picked him up in town on Friday when we drove to Houghton–and we had driven home without picking up his car from work.
Sigh…
And then he said, “How ’bout we have breakfast in town?”
So off we drove for our second meal out at a restaurant. I cannot even bear to tell you about Meal #3 on Saturday night. You could ask Faithful Blog Reader and Commenter, Cindy Lou. She might tell the gory details.
I shall simply end this blog by saying it was a Wild Weekend. Someone came along and put a noose around my neck and tied me to the computer. What can I say? It was worth it…but it’s probably time to go back outside and enjoy Nature for a while. Maybe clean the house. Meditate.
Thanks a billion to all the readers who stopped by since Friday and also to all those who left a comment. Sounds like most of us have some reservations about Facebook, don’t we? Hopefully we all can turn it around in a way that honors our deepest promptings.
Lake Superior Spirit 
Good morning, Kathy – “Soft pine needles surround growing spring cone” is the photo that really resonates with me this morning. They’re spraying (via helicopter) for Gypsy Moths here this morning (our back yard backs up to a protected wetlands — obviously not protected from chemicals being launched from the sky). I’m in the house with the girls (Willa – Irish Wolfhound, Lexi – Standard Poodle, and Claire – Westie) — we stay inside when they spray.
I appreciate the way you ended your blog today by saying, “Hopefully we all can turn it around in a way that honors our deepest promptings.”
CINDY LOU – I’d like the gory details about Meal #3 on Saturday night. Do tell …
Laurie, sorry to hear about the spraying challenges this morning. That is sad… Last year they sprayed some chemicals across the road on a young forest…don’t know what they were trying to protect or kill.
I think it’s important for us to honor our deepest promptings in a sacred way. Sometimes it seems that we must bring our feelings up to the surface to discuss them before resolve seems to find a way.
More than statistics, I love our conversations here! Missed that so much this weekend… And soon will stop by your Energy medicine class at http://holessence.wordpress.com/ So instructive!
My favorite was the Soft Pine needles as well. Being from Minnesota they make me think of my home state.
I too want to hear the details of meal #3, after the others, this sounds like a really great story.
Thanks for sharing, and I will be watching your stats too!
My blog died. This is the second time! I have 3, count em 3 hits right now….
Kim
http://Snoopykg2.wordpress.com
Snoopykg2@aol.com
Butterflies Galore
Kim…I’m thinking probably Cindy couldn’t figure out what was suppose to be so exciting about Meal #3. We actually ended up going to a cool place called Carla’s Restaurant (which overlooks the Keweenaw Bay) and had a delicious fish meal. I carried on to Cindy about the wild & crazy excitement of the blog and she calmed me down and said, “Breathe, Kathy, breathe” and I told her I loved her. Guess those weren’t “gory” details. It just felt so abandoned to be headed out to eat the THIRD time during the weekend.
Sorry to hear about your ailing blog, Kim. Maybe it really isn’t dying. Maybe it needs more attention…? I know my Simply Here blog sometimes gets three hits, but that’s because I stop writing so much.
Kathy,
I am glad that your have been propelled out side again, some very wonderful creative photographs of the nature and wonder that surrounds us, that you won’t find on facebook. A loving husband you won’t find of facebook who managed to convince you there is a life outside your blog. Good for him, he should get your attention for awhile too.
I am grateful that you have come back to your senses, and have written a new blog to keep the presences present.
I am Love, Jeff
Good morning, Jeff! Good to see you… I agree with you, it is wonderful to spend time out in nature! Truly, we both did spend time outside this weekend–in between computer forays. We planted more of the garden and took pictures and sat for long stretches out on the deck. Took a couple walks. Spent more time face-to-face eating out at restaurants than we have in a long time.
But truly…he was as bad as me. We’d be planting seeds or drinking coffee and HE would say, “Kathy, is it time to check the computer? Is it time to check your blog?” A blog-enabler, that one!
I like that –a blog enabler!
I was told yesterday that someone who rally loves you will support your endeavors whatever they are.
P.S Laurie
I saw the helicopter this morning. I thought it looked funny, now that you mentioned it, the crop dusmting equipent is what threw me for a loop!
Kim
I admit to checking your blog more than once (ok, maybe about 5 times) this weekend, just to see the # of hits and the # of comments!
Awesome!
But now perhaps it’s time to institute another 24 hour break from the computer? So that you don’t miss the marvelous spring we’re having! I have lupine blooming in my yard too…maybe I’ll go and get a few for the kitchen counter…my way of “bringing the outside in!”
Loved the dandelion puff at dusk photo…
Oh, Dawn, you made me laugh! I am glad to hear I wasn’t the only one. (My dad and daughter were checking too…) You are so right about scheduling another extended “time out” from the computer. Not just yet, though. Feeling like I’m just getting back in the “regular” routine. Have a good day! Enjoy your lupine bouquet. That is a great idea.
Kathy, what a cheeky little fellow that chipmunk is. It sounds like it was a Wild Weekend in your garden too…and it wasn’t even a full moon!! One can only wonder what was going on in that furry little head of his and if he had a pea-picking-partner or two. Ah well, one of those wonderful mysteries in life.
And yes please, Cindy Lou….. Meal #3!
Colleen, you can not imagine the names we called that “cheeky” chipmunk! He is persona non gratis around our garden. Perhaps a chipmunkas non gratis. He may have decimated our entire pea crop! Barry wants to take down the fence already but I am begging him to wait and see if a few peas come up.
I photographed some lupines yesterday. Beautiful plants in different stages of blossoming.
Congrats on making it to the WordPress front page. Didn’t know it had one so I shall look for it. I get obsessed with stats, too. It’s okay, really. 🙂
Scott, if you go to “My Account” and then “WordPress” you will come to a page that says My Blogs, Freshly Pressed and Tags. If you click on “Freshly Pressed” you will see the bogs they have featured for the day.
Thank you for sharing your stats obsession. I don’t feel so alone! And have been feeling more okay with it lately…
You need only touch a single person to have a profound effect…
Dig that baby pine cone! 🙂
Dawn, my heart agrees with you totally! Sometimes we can have a more profound effect sharing with a single person than with a hundred…
when I got to this blog post and scanned the theme tags you posted, my eye missed a comma which led me to look for photos of Fresh Pressed Chipmunks.
It made me think of “Pressed Fairies”, or possibly a rustic new flavor of coffee drink.
thanks for the unintended giggles this morning 🙂
http://www.amazon.com/Lady-Cottingtons-Pressed-Fairy-Book/dp/0810959429
Freshly Pressed Chipmunks!
Freshly Pressed Chipmunks!!
I am laughing so hard…can’t stop…eyes watering…
I’ll tell you, Janet, that chipmunk is gonna be freshly pressed if we can catch it!
thanks for the laugh.
Morning Kathy!
Yeah that last Blog was INSANE with the comments I checked the box that says “Notify me of follow-up comments via email.” OMG did I get all those emails of people commenting.
It’s GREAT that your husband is an Editor and thinks your Blog as an equal. As for me I keep my blog away from my my boyfriend because of what it in tails.
So sorry for your poor garden although it’s funny in a way. If you REALLY think about it.
Shelly, oh no, you poor girl! I feel so sorry for people who checked that follow-up comment box. Did you know that you can “unsubscribe” if that even happens again with a blog? I sometimes unsubscribe if it looks like a zillion people start commenting. Kinda clutters up the email inbox.
glad you enjoyed the chipmunk humor! We’re sure going to be missing those sweet delicious peas though. Although maybe some will come up?
lol! I had the same experience a few weeks ago when one of my posts was Freshly Pressed. Not as many hits (red buds are probably not as trending a topic as Facebook), but the same obsession with stats. I almost got up in the middle of the night to check them.
It was fun while it lasted. 🙂
All of your photos are beautiful but I especially like the dandelion puff at dusk.
Congratulations, Robin, on your experience of being Freshly Pressed! I know what you mean about not so many hits depending on the topic. My blog “Hark, who goes there in the swamp?” was probably about on par with your red buds post.
Glad you enjoyed the fun. We know that life quickly goes back to normal in the aftermath.
Wow!! Congratulations on having your day in the spotlight!! I took a personal day on Friday and then the weekend…see what I missed? The obsession you describe is exactly why we don’t invite the web into our house…pesky net makes me do crazy things. They force it on us here at work making my job much more difficult to do (ha ha?)…and if I want it on the weekends I have to lug my laptop to a public provider somewhere.
Interesting thing with the peas. Are you sure they were chipmunks? Days after planting mine, all the seeds were sitting on top of the soil. I just figured the air pockets in the soil pushed them up. So I pushed them all down. Now they are growing but once again, the seeds, root and all are on top of the soil but still growing strong. Have you actually seen the little munkey?
Hi Karla! Thank you, indeed. Sounds like you have a viable solution to keep your computer-time limited! I turned off the computer today for about four hours this afternoon. That felt good. We’re 95.5% certain it’s a chipmunk. We saw tiny tracks. And a chipmunk in the garden with a guilty alarmed look on his face. (Or so says Barry.) Could be somethin’ else, though. Although right now we’re voting Guilty Chipmunk.
Kathy, I think that was the best laugh of the day:
“…he next morning he looked around the house and asked, “Where is my coffee cup?”
I, of course, was staring at the computer and could not respond. ”
Guilty. Sometimes I’m so riveted by what’s on-screen I can’t respond to people either.
I read your post last week and didn’t comment so this was a big surprise that you had so many visitors over the weekend.
You and I became Facebook Friends when Gaia went down, so we could stay in touch. I find it easier to stay in touch with you right here on your blog! Give Mr. Book my regards.
Jessica, I am glad we can stay in touch through our blogs. I like our blogs the best because they can say so much more than one or two lines. Glad you had a laugh! We actually had a lot of laughs this weekend. We laughed more than once about the craziness of it all. So very glad we are still in touch. I just went over to Facebook and tentatively posted a status: 94 sweltering degrees here in the woods. (Someone said it was in the 60’s in town around noon. Odd that there could be that much colder 12 miles away…)
Not sure if anyone is speaking to me over there. LOL! Just kiddin’.
Kim – the crop dusting helicopter comes SO LOW AND CLOSE to us I swear I could reach my hand out and shake the pilot’s hand.
That spraying behavior is really scaring. I know they say it’s “for the good” to get rid of the Gypsy Moths but I don’t like the idea of using chemicals. The chemicals themselves may do more damage than the moths!
What absolutely beautiful lupins! I noticed them on the trail here this morning too. I can’t believe it’s already lupin time.
Don’t worry too much about worrying about stats and hits and such. Just enjoy it when it’s good. Right now I’m trying to get grandson #2 to sleep without much success. He’s hot and would much rather play with the keyboard and check out the lupins. Me too 🙂
Lupine time arrives each year whether we are ready or not! I like your advice, Amy. “Enjoy it when it’s good.” Sounds like a winenr! (And it’s hot here too. Really hot. Muggy. 90 degrees. 32.22 celcius!
It was the Freshly Pressed highlighting of your Facebook blog that brought me to your site. Thank you to Freshly Pressed!
I try not to be stats-obsessed, and I have no reason to be because my stats are nothing to shout about. But it pleases me to have people visit and read my wanderings. I think I need to broaden my horizons somewhat though, but life is very quiet (blessedly so) and some days just aren’t made for fertile writing ground.
I envy your lupine – I found a few buds on mine today.
Hi Carol. I am so glad you have stopped by. I am also glad you have succeeded in not being stat-obsessed. I admire you greatly! You know what is kind of amazing? Even on the most blessedly quiet of days, little ordinary stories seem to sprout everywhere. Along with the lupines! That has been the most fun during seventeen months of blogging–finding stories on the ordinary days when your entire mind insists that “nothing happened”. Hope you come back to visit!
If only I had a dollar for every time I came to upwoods.wordpress.com… Incredible writing.
Dear Josue, do you know how much you made my day? Thank you, thank you!! As for having a dollar every time you come to upwoods—oh my, that sounds so wonderful. Do you think I could have a dollar too?? And what if all the readers and commenters were paid a dollar to stop by here (not be me, of course. Maybe WordPress could pay? LOL!)