"Am I Blue?"

"Am I Blue?"  Oh, yeah, plus a bit disappointed, somewhat uncertain, and just a tad snarky.  Let me explain why.

On Monday I wrote about the horrendous wildfires that were appearing in various locations in Texas.  There was a cluster of fires of various sizes located in a U-shape around Austin, the closest of which was less than five miles from my house.  (That fire is now contained, so we are ok!)

Having been a blogger for two plus years now, I have visited many bloggers I follow when they experienced or expected some sort of potentially catastrophic event; everything from serious personal illness, family illness, loss, accident, and deaths, to hurricanes, earthquake, rains, winds, tornado, flood, blizzards, and other natural disasters.

 Bloggers, as a rule, are incredibly supportive, caring, and friendly individuals.When something happens with a blogger friend, there is usually an outpouring of offers of help, prayers, good wishes, and worry that arrive from followers, subscribers, lurkers, and friends!  Everyone seems to care.   Complete strangers in every way except for what they write on their bogs, still send loving messages in times of  stress and fear.  It's one of the loveliest things about blogging.  It always impresses me when I see it.  People are basically good and this kind of thing is evidence that that is true!

So after I posted on Monday about the fires all around us in a circle of about a 50 mi. diameter, as well as about packing up valuables and hoping our home would remain out of harms way, I more or less expected that there would be a bunch of comments in the next day or two.  After all, I had 47 followers, several others who checked in regularly without actually blogging themselves (my sister,  for instance) and still others who would frequently show up in the stats but never identify themselves or write or comment about anything.  I thought a few of these nice people would express some concern or acknowledgement of our dangerous situation.

Well, it didn't happen.  I got two comments.  One from JE at "Moment by Moment"  http://jimmyrf.blogspot.com/ and the other from Beth at "C. Beth Blog"  http://cbethblog.blogspot.com/  These two friends are my best blogging buddies.  They visit every day and comment on nearly every post.  I happen to know Beth personally (she was one of my inspirations to start blogging) and JE and I appear to have been twins separated at birth!

But, no other comments were received at all.  Not even from my sister! (She might actually be out of town, so I can't be mad at her.)  But I don't think any of my "followers" even read the post.  Well, I can understand that, I guess.  It was the holiday weekend and people get busy.  It didn't even surprise me all that much.  There certainly wasn't anything anyone could do about the fires and we didn't appear to be in any danger. 

Believe it or not, I am not sitting here with my nose out of joint because I wasn't flooded with warm fuzzies from concern from my blogger friends.  Well, not exactly.

What has disappointed me, made me kind of blue, and just a tad snarky is that this lack of response is becoming the norm....which makes me kind of question whether or not I should continue blogging at all.  I kind of feel like I'm talking to an empty room, you know?

Now to be fair, there are four or five others of my followers who will pop in with a comment from time to time and I am always glad to see them.  It's the others who have signed up as a follower and then completely disappear that bothers me (this is the snarky bit).  When I follow someone I read their posts almost daily and I comment when they have posted something that sparks a response in me.  I don't comment every day but I do comment frequently.  If there is a blog that has turned out not to be what I thought it would be,  I have stopped following them, rather than just ignoring their posts.

I guess the thing that has me questioning is that I don't know if people have been disappointed by my blog, or find me too outspoken, or don't like what I have to say.  (Yes, I am insecure and I want people to like me.)  I have mentioned that I don't make friends easily.  Is my blog an extension of that??  Is my blog too unfocused??  Are my posts just too darn long??  Or am I just boring?  I don't know and I wish I did. But at the moment, "Am I Blue?" is a question that gets an unqualified, YES for an answer.

"Is anybody there?  Does anybody care?"



P.S.  Of course, while I was writing this, another of my blogger friends stopped by and commented on Monday's post.  She is the lovely lady who writes  http://wsprsweetlyofcottages.blogspot.com/   Thanks, Mona.  Great timing!!  :)