Very Nearly Four Thousand Hits

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

As of this writing, I am just under four thousand hits on my blog. Again (because I like to recap and recap and recap), I started my blog here in Carmel, in January of 2010, in the kitchen of the cottage called Tucked In, which we used to rent for the month of January. Two years ago, we found this house. This year, I've been here since just before Christmas, and our stay is fast coming to a close.

After a brutal cold spell, the weather has turned warm, and the beach is even more stunningly beautiful. We took a long walk yesterday past River Beach and all the way up to Carmel Beach. It was Martin Luther King Day, and the beach was filled with people and dogs. The waves were high and there were surfers way far out, riding and wiping out -- the essence of surfing which is why I quickly gave up on it as a teenager. Water=cold.

Later, we went to Mission Ranch for cocktails. It was packed. We had wrongly figured that it wouldn't be crowded because the weekenders would have left town. But, at this time of year, Carmel's population is greatly comprised of snowbirds and other retirees. And they all came out to drink last night at Clint's place. I brought an extra sweater, and a coat which I left in the car. I immediately peeled off the top sweater and was warm in the turtleneck I was wearing below. Cold snap so over.

There was a splendid sunset, then it did begin to turn cool so we left for home where we prepared dinner, and watched some of the inaugural festivities (though it's hard to actually watch these things anymore, since programs seem to be made up of people telling you about what you would really like to be watching without commentary. But that's just me...).

So (she rambles on), about those four thousand hits...It took me fifteen months from my first post in early January 2010 to get to one thousand hits. Nine months later I celebrated two thousand hits. It was another eight months before I hit three thousand, this occurring last September when we were here at this house. And now, a mere four and one-half months later I am quickly approaching the four thousand mark. Pretty cool I think, though I hear of blogs which receive as many post per day and even per hour! No delusions of grandeur here. Truth is, I would be writing even if no one was reading (besides Billy...and Lydia...and Max...my small and deeply demented following). After all, no one reads my journal (shivers and shudders), and I write a lot more there. So there you have it.

For the last year or two, I have been working on the outline of a novel about a woman who committed suicide after entering into a loveless, eleventh-hour ticking-biological-clock marriage, then failing to accomplish her dream of having children, and subsequently embarking on a failed romance with a Peruvian salsa dancer. Seriously. It's actually humorous in spite of the topic, but these days I have a hard time working on it. And (as my friend Lydia says, and I now also like to say a lot) that's ok. I've never really had dreams about being a famous writer nor a famous anything. I just like the process of writing. I like the blank page. I like to see my thoughts thrown up there for better or, more usually, for worse. It feels good. And that's ok.

So, here is the part where I thank all two or two hundred, or maybe even more, of you for however many times you have visited my blog and read my posts. I don't get a lot of comments (you know who you are), but I fervently hope that at least some of you are finding at least some of the posts entertaining. Fervently. Hope. It has truly been a labor of love for me, in spite of the occasional stumbles and that collection of whining and complaining posts (wait until you read one of those in the pipe, entitled: Ecological Anorexia. It's coming soon, right here to this blog, and I, for one, can hardly wait!). What began as a loosely-organized, mediocre-in-design blog written by a resistant-to-the-medium blogger, about cooking, dancing, and life as I know it, has taken off and traveled a path of its own. I am gratified to the max (Hi Max!) that I've been accompanied on this meandering journey. So, as always, to those of you who have been on the entire trip, and those of you who have just dropped in for a leg or two, I thank you for reading my blog.