I just realized that August marks the anniversary of 10 years of blogging for me. As I begin my 11th year I want to say thank you to all my loyal readers who have endured my attempts at decipherable literature no matter how often I fell short of the mark.

In spite of the recent paucity of posts, I have recorded well over 500 posts in these ten years. I also have over 500 followers, which is a respectable number considering I have never been honored with a “Freshly Pressed” of “Discovered” award by the WordPress publishers. While that speaks volumes for their unimpeachable integrity when evaluating posts, you would think they would occasionally throw me a bone just to keep me as a subscriber. But now that I think about it, it should be sufficient that they provide me a platform to publish my pablum, no questions asked. And never mind that probably over half of my followers are just trying to entice me over to their websites to sell me something.

The main point I want to make is that it has been a real pleasure to interact with so many of you over these years. Our back and forth has provided many both informative and humorous moments, not to mention interesting insights into your lives.

I never had any “pen pals” while growing up, but blogging has made up for that in spades! I feel have gotten close to so many of you without ever having met you. We’ve talked about topics many and varied and provided support to each other where it was needed.

Probably the biggest thrill from all this is when I get a chance to meet some of you in person during my travels. Each time that happens it feels more like a reunion than it does a first meeting. While I’ve met up with several bloggers in this country, just a few years ago I was able to rendezvous with five of my bogging friends during a trip to England. A couple of them traveled a good distance to meet Patty and me in London. You can read about that here. I look forward to meeting more of you once this crazy Coronavirus has finally run the gamut.

Without a doubt, blogging has allowed me to to explore a creativity that heretofore laid dormant. For that, my friends, I thank you.

See you in the “sphere”.

Your pal, Al