A Boomer in the Pew

Spring in the Sonoran Desert of Scottsdale, Arizona

In just a few weeks it will be spring in the Sonoran desert!   

Behold spring from these photographs from my flickr site:

1. Desert Spring Flowers, 2. Cactus Spring Flower, 3. Orange Butterfly, 4. Butterfly Macro, 5. Arizona Butterfly, 6. Blue Flower, 7. Arizona Red Flower, 8. Blue Flower (cropped), 9. Octopus Catus, 10. Old Man Cactus, 11. Delicate Desert Flora, 12. Orange Desert Delicate, 13. Bees on Mesquite Blossom, 14. Desert Pink Flower, 15. Spring and Easter Colors, 16. Delicate Desert Yellow, 17. Yellow against Green, 18. Red Yellow Orange Desert Wildflowers, 19. Blue Desert Wildflower, 20. Sonoran Desert Bee, 21. High Sonoran Desert Bee, 22. Beauty and the Beast, 23. Purple Floating Flower, 24. Arizona Wildflower, 25. Yellow Desert Flower, 26. Passionate Purple, 27. Passion for Purple, 28. Arizona Pomegranate, 29. Saguaro Bloom, 30. Orange Butterfly on Yellow, 31. Black Butterfly on Purple, 32. Arizona's Passion Flower, 33. Arizona Red, 34. Daisy, 35. Hummingbird

Boomer in the Pew's Statistics for 2009

Each year, it is kind of fun to glance back at my Google Analytics to see what I can glean from my statistics.

These numbers are minuscule as compared to some of the highly trafficked blogs, but I suppose in the world of blogs I continue to show growth.

It should be noted also, that I really don't do much to grow traffic here, it really has been fairly organic thus far.

Here are a few highlights:

• we had visitors from 170 countries.
• we had 72,621 visits/198.96 visits per day
• we had 109,983 pages read during the year/1.51 pages per visit
• 1,331 individuals visited over 200 times during the year.  Other than people who visited three times or less, the 200+ crowd was my largest group.  That means that I have real daily readers.  I am thankful for that.
• 47% of my readers us the Firefox browser.
• I had 354 visits from iPhones.  This will likely continue to grow as a percentage.
• 47% of my readers were referred from other sites.  StumbleUpon was #1.
• the #1 most widely read post was when we gave away a $250 ESV Study Bible on our 1st birthday.  Over 7,400 people visited that post.  People love to win free stuff.
• I have written over 900 posts since launching in February of 2008.
• We earned a Google Page Rank #4 this year. 

I have greatly enjoyed this journey thus far, and I am looking forward to seeing where 2010 leads.

To those of you who are loyal readers, thank you very much, I hope to continue enjoying your trust, and pray that this year we might see a great crowd reading the Bible together,  in our year-long ESV Study Bible series.

“Tweet” 2009 Word of the Year, “Google” Word of the Decade, as voted by American Dialect Society

In its 20th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted “tweet” (noun, a short message sent via the Twitter.com service, and verb, the act of sending such a message) as the word of the year and “google” (a generic form of “Google,” meaning “to search the Internet) as its word of the decade.

Click the link above and you can read about the other words considered, such as:  fail, H1N1, public option, Dracula sneeze, blog, rogue, teabagger, pants bomber, and the most euphemistic:  hike the Appalachian Trail, named such for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

A Note of Love to my Granddaughter Savannah

Dear Savannah,

One of the missions of this blog is to leave a written legacy for my family.   Today, I want to make it crystal clear what a special place you hold in my heart.

My immediate family has been completely void of little girls.  Raising boys is quite a different matter from having a little girl around.

I have always felt the lack of a little girl as a loss in my life, but having just spent some time with you at Christmas made this loss abundantly clear.

I'm afraid that you, Savannah, have completely captured your Poppa Porter's heart.

Here are a few things that I want you to know that I love about you:

• You have an absolutely infectious laugh.  Everyone at our Christmas party immediately noticed the complete joy that flows from your heart.
• You are a very beautiful girl.  I look forward to watching you grow into a young woman.
• I'm certain that you mother wouldn't approve, but I loved how you made a beeline, in the hotel room, to jump on the bed.
• When I asked you your favorite part of your experience, you said, "the pillow fight with daddy".  It made me feel wonderful that you had that opportunity to have fun with your father.
• I love having you as my friend on Facebook.  Nearly everyday you send me a note, "I Love you", or "I miss you".  Those notes mean a great deal to me.
• You seem to share my joy of reading, and learning.  I hope that as you grow in understanding, we might have many wonderful conversations.
• When we made our plans to attend church on Sunday, you said, "oh good, I love church".  That meant a lot to me.
• You made me angel butterflies.  Those mean a lot to me.

I believe that children are a gift from God, and you Savannah are a most special gift. 

I love you!  I miss you!

Poppa Porter, and Grandma C.

PS  Please ask your mother to print this letter out so that you can read it often, and never forget my love for you.

The Roaming Boomers is Just a few Weeks From Launching

The basic design work for our new "The Roaming Boomers" website has just been completed, and now we start the task of building the foundational posts before we actually start producing live content.

This particular adventure into the world of social media, and in particular travel related social media should be a blast.

We welcome your comments.

Considering Horatius Bonar's "Light and Truth - Bible Thoughts & Themes" as my Guide Through the Bible in 2010

I am giving consideration to my guide through the Bible in 2010.  This year, I have been using the ESV Study Bible plan as my guide.

For 2010, I am considering Horatius Bonar's five volume journey through the Bible.

Are any of you familiar with this series? 

Might you have a viewpoint, or perhaps even another suggestion?

Arizona Artist Pat Cain's Abstract: Desert Light

I have grown to enjoy certain styles of abstract painting.  As I total lover of vibrant color, this painting by Pat Cain resonates with me.

It must have also resonated with the Sonoran Art League, as this is the painting featured on the front cover of the 13th Annual Hidden in the Hills Artist Studio Tour & Sale.

Another interesting tidbit about this particular artist is that she currently lives in our gated-community, and is also from Michigan.

In fact, she once had a place on Torch Lake (Michigan), another one of my favorite places in the world, and like us was drawn to the Sonoran desert.

My favorite colors tend to fall in the red/yellow spectrum, subsequently this painting immediately captured my attention.

Clearly one of the reasons that I love the Southwest is that these colors are presented everywhere around me.

Tomorrow is the last day for the artist tour. If you have a chance, I highly recommend it.

Carol Serves up Some Homemade German Goetta

Many hundreds of years ago, German peasants would add oatmeal to their meat dishes in order to have enough protein to go around.

As the centuries have passed, many of these dishes have become cherished family recipes.

My wife's family hails from the Cincinnati area, and a highly coveted dish amongst these particular Germans is something called Goetta.

Today, after arriving home from church, Carol served up some of this wonderful concoction, with two sunny-side-up eggs on top!

What a wonderful treat! 

Have you ever had Goetta?  If not, you don't know what you are missing.

Try out our new ReBlog Button

Typepad, the host company of this blog, has just released a "ReBlog Button".  Evidently, if you like one of my blog posts, you can hit the "reblog" button, at the bottom of each post, and easily create a re-post on your blog.

Sounds great!

Find a post you like, try it out, and give me some feedback.

Thanks!

Grandma's Front Porch: A Place of Deep-Seated Memories

Yesterday, I referenced my grandmother's front porch.  Well, today I was most pleased to find photographs of that front porch from my Uncle Don in my e-mail.  My uncle is now the owner of this early 1900's home, and he wanted also to remind me that those big green things are called trees. Uncle Don, along with my brother Doug, were the comedians in the family.

These mammoth maple trees are also the very same trees that I wrote of collecting maple syrup with my grandfather.

It is good to see this porch. 

I can remember my grandmother being so frustrated with me beating up my brother (sorry Doug), that she spanked me with a toy ukulele (the only time I can remember her spanking me).  I can remember her spending countless hours reading fairy tales to me.  I can remember greatly enjoying her home-made ice cream on hot summer nights.  I can remember her cackle as we shared funny stories.  I can remember her crocheting intricate doilies. 

One of her favorite sayings was "oh pshaw" as someone would invariably crack a wise tale.

Thanks Uncle Don for these photographs.  I will treasure them for the memories. 

Oh...he also wanted to remind me, now that I am an Arizonian, what snow looks like.

YUK!