Pond Update & 4 Years of Blogging

(insert creepy music)

for a week now I've had these eyes popping up... rest assured after much googling.. they are the eyes of a softshelled turtle..

However.......

...this is NOT a softshelled turtle!

It was first spotted by the maintenance person and then as I was out feeding the turtle I saw off in the distance  ... a piece of what looked like a branch floating?...but after the news that a gator was spotted sunning himself I ran and got my camera and  I took photo's... well the "branch"  has eyes and scales!  It is small (now). The maintenance person said, "maybe 2 foot tail and all"... the office had already said that this pond had a gator once before and they have to be 5 ft long before anyone will come out to try to catch it and take it away...

I'll keep you informed as I know anything.  I hope it doesn't eat everything in the pond to get to 5 foot long!

Meanwhile, I let yesterday slip by without remembering that it was my 4th year Anniversary of blogging!  (I will admit that I would have forgotten totally if it wasn't for Naomi's blog..she too was celebrating 4 yrs of blogging!)

FOUR YEARS and 1,235 posts!

I looked back in archives and my first post (with no pictures!)  it was about the appalling way elderly people are treated for medical purposes... heh.. four years later and I could say the same thing.. some things never change.... now that's scarier than the alligator!

In the beginning (hmmm, is that plagiarism?).. ummm, in the beginning I didn't know what to write for a blog so a did a little of everything.  I did a bunch of memory stuff.. like old tv I watched (remember Spin and Marty on the Mousketeer Show?)  I even wrote about my first really happy memory... and would you believe I had posts WITHOUT photos?!

I wrote things like when I wrote to get autographs from Turhan Bey and how I received a note back from him.. and a note I got from Red Skelton when I wrote him also!  I still cherish those letters and of course I've saved them!

Of course I wrote posts about DeForest Kelley too!  Sometimes those posts included my cat Pookey.  And I wrote of my brother the artist.

Why I even wrote about some special times that were probably some of the "funniest" I ever had..

Then somehow after 2 yrs of that.. I stumbled into Stainless Steel Droppings.  Carl was doing his Fantasy Challenge at the time and I just thought this was the greatest thing I had ever found!  Little did I know it would lead me into poverty buying more books then I ever dreamed of!  (Is this where I thank Carl or kill him??)  And we all know what direction my blog has taken since then!

Of course I'm not a speed reader..nor even a fast reader.. so I mostly have fill in posts..but..somehow it's all worked, at least I think so. 

I've seen blogs begin.. and be abandoned.. nothing really new.  Life changes and people no longer have the time or energy to blog.  But for those of us who just can't seem to leave.. it becomes a necessity to check in, to see how those we've come to know thru our computer are doing.  We worry if they aren't around for more then a few days, and we try to listen when listening might help. 

I"ve gained many new friends since blogging.  I've adopted a son (Chris), and gained a sister (Cath).  Most of all, my computer, blogging and writing have helped me with my depression.  It hasn't been a cure... but it helps keep me going. 

After 4  years if feel like.. well..  I woke this morning...therefore I will blog!

If I had a Margarita I would celebrate... but I guess I will settle for posting this to my blog!