Hurricane Isaac Makes Landfall Seven Years To The Date of Hurricane Katrina:
Hurricane Isaac Whips Storm Surge on Path to New Orleans
It's not Katrina, but being on the east side of the so called weaker storm allows the water to flood in.
It is so big and it will be so slow to wind down, it looks like we are in for some pummeling weather.
This is not a post about the hurricane. There is a plethora of news about the hurricane on every media outlet. It is going to be pretty rough here in Louisiana, for the next few days. Isaac is slower moving so the rain, wind and tornados will be around for a while. This storm is so not over. There is horizontal rain beating down. My son just told me that the rain drops pounding down really hurt his head, but of course he still wants to be outside. It is going to be a wild ride. Schools are closed tomorrow, and Friday. Over one half of the state is without power. I don't know how long the battery will last on my laptop but I have a backup and hopefully the power will be restored sooner than later because the state was better prepared for this go round.
Getting Re-Acquainted With Blog Followers
I don't remember who it was, but one of your awesome bloggers did something over the summer that I thought was pretty cool. You know what it is like when you see or read a post and think to yourself, wow- I wish I would have thought of that? Have you ever read a blog post and made a mental note to do something similar or to follow up on later? Well that happened this summer. One of you made a commitment to visit the blogs of each and every one of your followers. I wish I could remember who it was, because I loved the idea. I don't remember why they decided to do it or any of the specific details like whether they started with their first or last follower or whether or not they had a self imposed deadline. I just remember thinking it was a good idea.
When we first begin blogging it is easy to follow the blogs of all of our followers. I don't know how he does it, but Alex Cavanaugh, has over 1600 followers and racks up hundreds of comments each time he publishes a post and he still manages to stay connected with his entire army. I think he posted a while back about his system of compartmentalizing his followers so that none are ever overlooked.
As our reading audience grows it becomes more and more difficult to stay really connected with everyone. We all have different ways of responding to comments but we all make a good effort to stay connected. We have our favorite blogs that we tune into daily and their blogs often encourage or direct us to other blogs. There isn't nearly enough time in a day to visit every follower, read their blog and leave comments. I wish there was.
I have noticed a trend (or habit may be a better word) in my method of reading blogs. Of course I try to visit the blogs of those who left recent comments on my latest post and then I usually hit my favorite blogs and then I jump around following the suggestions of other bloggers. Looking back at my list of followers it seems that I visit groups at a time-meaning groups who are friendly with each other or groups that happened to start following my blog around the same time as each other. This is not intentional on my part. I just stumbled upon this little pattern of mine quite by accident.
Is there a point to all of this? Yes!
I think it is a good idea to get re-acquainted with all of our friends and followers from time to time. I was reading my comments today after being away for a while and one of my comments was from a blogger I have not been in contact with lately. Just seeing their name stirred up that old nostalgic feeling and got me thinking, how many other bloggers have I neglected or lost contact with simply because we are both busy and the timing hasn't been exactly perfect?
So my goal for the month of September is to reconnect with every single follower. No pressure. It is not a challenge or a blogfest, just something I want to do.
Congratulations, Shell Flower. Shell is the first of ten winners who I am selecting randomly from the comment section of my next ten blog post . The winner receives a copy of Jennifer Hiller's latest thriller Freak.
Another winner selected from the comment section of this post.