Being added to someone's blogroll or having your name linked on their site is, to me, a great honor and a humbling pirvilege. And it makes me feel guilty when I neglect to update. Since I have met so many new people and have just recently been added to an Apostolic Pentecostal blogroll and since I can't really think of anything too unique, I have decided to reiterate a summary about me and this blog.

It all started with a couple of friends telling me that if I had a blog I could keep family and friends up-to-date on all the goings on and I could practice writing. That sounded good, I thought, and I had a friend here on Blogdrive that had been blogging for a while and wahoo, this blog was born. I had already written a website in HTML (which I have since taken down. The free server I used kept adding so many pop-ups and banners and click-heres that it was getting ridiculous. Sure, I was getting the server space for free but they were making good money off of me. I was proud of it, though because I wrote it in Notepad and Word. People here at Blogdrive that whine about having one little banner on their site should be glad that that's all. Well, now there is always some "dating" one on the comments page which are often nothing like what I would choose to allow, but that's another parenthetical comment for a different entry. Anyway, I pay $5.00 a month and have no banner and an unlimited photo gallery.) so this blogging thing seemed a natural progression.

Since that initial entry, there have been some changes in my thoughts about what this blog should be and what it should contain, so let me introduce to you, My Blog.

The Cast of Characters:

Savannah Melody, Grandbaby as beautiful as a rare flower.

Ben, my son, Savannah's daddy

Isabel, Ben's wife

Elizabeth, or Lizzy, my daughter

Troy, her husband

Douglas Bartholomew, their baby-to-be

Tabitha, sometimes known as "Tab-the-Bad-Cat." teenage daughter and former Vet Assistant extraordinaire.

Abigail, other teenage daughter and straight A high school student

Margaret, my tolerant wife, Home Health Care CNA who does not like to be in the spotlight or put on the spot

Grandma Pike, Margaret's mother, who lives with us

Janet or Aunt Janet, Margaret's sister who also lives with us

Carter, an old (I mean OOOOOLllddd) High School buddy who is a Cav warhorse supreme

Snoopy, the dog, part Border Collie, part whatever-jumped-the-fence, maybe Chow. All black, sometimes 50 pounds of super dog and sometimes 50 pounds of stupid dog.

Four mighty and heroic hunters, commonly called cats:

Fee-foe, the gentle giant, who is the smallest of them all, but definitely the top cat

Fraidy Cat, her brother

Bagheera, a sleek, all black cat that we inherited from friends who is the only one that not only hates Snoopy but is just as willing to fight with her as run away from her.

And Cookie, a full-blooded "La Perm" which has tightly curled hair all over, even its whiskers are curly and is by far the most intelligent of them all since she not only likes me, but loves me. We inherited her also.

Professor Whiz and Professor Clearwater, parakeets

and

Roo Boom-Boom Thiel, the giant white rabbit. Not "Harvey" giant white rabbit, just a really heavy, really big rabbit. He was given to Abigail when she was a little girl and I, under duress, agreed and now have the weekly chore of cleaning his cage.

Another character (not really a pet) that comes around sometimes now but used to be a more regular part of the furniture is Ashley, who comes around and plays games with Janet and has been sort of a fixture for a long time. It is directly because of her father's Christian attitude that we are all still in church today.

I announced early on when I started blogging that I did not want to stick to just one subject or theme. Since it is my blog, it is about me and whatever strikes my fancy to write about. I told my church friends that I did not plan to write only about church related things, I told my other friends I would not be only writing about secular things. It is my blog and I write what I feel inspired to write. At Christmas time I wrote several pieces about the one true God coming to Earth as well as a couple about Santa. I have written a couple of political pieces as well. I guess I am conservative, although there are certain points of the libertarian agenda I find appealing. I think that there are even things I can agree with more moderate liberals on. I just write because I like to write.

I had originally stated that I planned to write at least 350 words every single day as a writing exercise, but then was told it should be 1000 words a day. One contest I plan to enter this year has a 1500 word limit. That seems to be about the right word count for me and I generally try not to stray too far from that.

And last, but not least, I end every entry with a remark, 'The Good Book says." This is in honor of Reb Tevye, from "Fiddler on the Roof." Sometimes it is a direct quote from the King James Version of the Bible, sometimes a quote from some other version and sometimes just some nonsense that I thought was relevant or hysterically funny at the moment.

Remember, The good book says, "Verily, Verily I say unto thee, whosoever readeth Herb's blogs shall be counted wise."