Sunday, April 01, 2007

More Milestones

Milestones are better than kidney stones. I've had two of the latter, the last now fortunately ten years past. The milestones are still happening, though. Last month saw another spike in traffic. Unsolicited Opinion had over 600 visitors in March. (I'm coming up behind you, Kos, any decade now.) March was the third straight increase in traffic and my average daily vists have more than tripled over last year. The end of March also witnessed my first extended comment string. All of this is pretty small potatoes in the blogtopian (yes! skippy coined the root of this phase!) universe but it tells me that my words and ideas are circulating and being read. Always satisfying to this writer. I even met fellow blogger, Minstrel Boy for breakfast in March. He's only the second blogger I've met in person outside of YearlyKos last year.

Beyond blogging, March was the 25th anniversary of moving from Richmond, Virginia to Phoenix, Arizona. Ten years ago in March I moved to the Navajo capital in Window Rock, Arizona. I am often caustic and skeptical about the city where I've ended up but I have no regrets about moving here. Leaving Virginia was difficult. I had never lived anywhere else and the idea of giving up everything I knew scared and saddened me. But I came here anyway and found much that I recognized, many new friends and a whole new world. I had always thought of the desert as a forbidding, desolate place. Living in Arizona quickly disabused me of that notion. The Sonoran Desert, which stretches from Phoenix south into Mexico is one of the most beautiful, striking places I have ever lived. It harbors an amazing array of plant and animal life. The night sky is like nothing I have ever seen in my life.

I never planned to stay in Phoenix. It was a stop along the way that turned out to be far more interesting than I had anticipated. I met my life partner, Maggie, and in those first months. Work was interesting. I went hiking whenever and wherever I could with the Central Arizona Backpackers. I explored much of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado Plateau and so many of Arizona's remote mountains and canyons: the Mazatzals, Pinelenos, Galiuros, Chiricauhuas. As a photographer, I met many artists and poets. When I did leave, I went to northeast Arizona and discovered a whole new set of adventures and friends.

Not a bad set of milestones on this first day of April 2007.

Labels: ,

1 Comments:

Blogger The Minstrel Boy said...

and a fine breakfast it was. i enjoyed it too. sometimes i can fall into the habit of burrowing into my country life, not leaving the house much, only using the phone and the 'puter for work stuff. it's nice to get out and actually talk to people.

9:23 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home