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\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>While Suzanne was enjoying the cooler environs of Nipomo<\/strong> and I was trying to sneak into Russia<\/strong>, this past August marked a small blog milestone \u2013 our 4-year anniversary. Those of you who have been with us for the entire ride may remember that our blog started in August 2011 \u2013 we certainly don\u2019t remember back that far! Initially it was a way to use social media to drive visitors to our ill-fated tribute poem writing business, Red Posey<\/em><\/strong>. The blog was then entitled Morning News in Verse<\/em><\/strong> and we would follow a USA Today<\/em><\/strong> newspaper format by writing four rhyming stanzas about topical news \u2013 one stanza each about Headlines, Business, Sports and Entertainment<\/strong>. Suzanne and I would alternate publishing a poem EVERYDAY!<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 That everyday thing lasted for about two months, when we realized that it was occupying way too much of our life \u2013 like all of it; so we cut back to twice a week. Every once in a while we would deviate from the poetic format, as deviates are wont to do, and write prose about various subjects. An example of this occurred in September of 2011, the 10th<\/sup> anniversary of 9\/11<\/strong>, when Suzanne wrote a moving piece entitled, Small Moments \u2013 A 9\/11 Tribute<\/em><\/strong>, ![\"World](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/911.jpg\")
<\/a>which received a large number of hits and many great comments \u2013 it is still to this day, probably the most visited blog in our archives<\/strong>. We eventually noticed that our number of blog hits and comments would increase when we scrapped the iambic pentameter and just wrote prose, not like pros, but prose nonetheless. While we immediately noticed the increase in interest when we scraped the poetry format, it took us until March of the next year to\u00a0officially change our content and format to what it is currently. And since we weren\u2019t rhyming any more we changed our name \u2013 not to Morning News Without<\/u> Verse<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>but to \u2018From A Bird\u2019s Eye View\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>a name borrowed from a newspaper column our mother wrote for the Novato Advance<\/em><\/strong> back when our dad was owner, editor and publisher of that paper in the 1940 and 50s.<\/p>\nWe continued to post a blog twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, until July 2012. Then, either sensing that we were running out of ideas or audience, or both, we switched to our current schedule of every Monday morning<\/strong>. Whether the deadline was everyday, twice a week or once a week, I am happy to report that we have not missed a scheduled posting since starting this back in August 2011; I guess that\u2019s due in part to our father\u2019s newspaper blood coursing through our veins, where missing a deadline just isn\u2019t an option.<\/p>\n Dad & Mom in front of the Novato Advance<\/p><\/div>\n Over these past four years we have published over 300 blogs<\/strong>, which have generated over 25,000<\/strong> \u2018views\u2019<\/strong> and nearly 1,000 comments<\/strong> (A special thank you to those who comment and let us know that our words don\u2019t just fly off into cyber space). Our biggest day came last December when 388<\/strong> people clicked on Suzanne\u2019s \u2018A TRIBUTE TO MY FIRST BEST FRIEND\u2019 <\/strong>about her friend Leslie Sherman. \u00a0And if you Google \u2018From a Bird\u2019s Eye View blog\u2019<\/strong>, you will find about 530 results over 12 pages \u2013 we are fortunate enough to be found . . . on the first page!!!<\/u><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been lucky enough to visit a lot of remarkable places and meet a number of interesting people; and I am thankful for staying awake in English class long enough to understand how to put a sentence together without dangling a modifier . . . most of the time. But the best part of all this is working with my sister, Suzanne<\/strong>. While our styles are a bit different, we enjoy reading and editing each other\u2019s posts prior to publishing (OK, she edits mine a whole lot more than I edit hers!), discussing subject matter, travel schedules and just plain catching up with each other on a much more regular basis than before we started writing together.<\/p>\n So as we try to avoid breaking our arms from patting ourselves on the back, we\u2019d mostly like to thank you loyal \u2018bird watchers\u2019<\/strong> for tuning in. As you know, we have written about everything from the ridiculous to the sublime (mostly me the ridiculous and Suzanne the sublime), so thank you for tolerating the expression of our thoughts, opinions and experiences.<\/p>\n How long can we do this? As long as you keep reading, we\u2019ll keep writing.<\/p>\n Thank you!!<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow \u00a0 \u00a0While Suzanne was enjoying the cooler environs of Nipomo and I was trying to sneak into Russia, this past August marked a small blog milestone \u2013 our 4-year anniversary. Those of you who have been with … read more<\/a><\/a>