Housekeeping Notes and a Request

Crabby Old Lady’s kvetching can’t be ignored any longer. She has been nagging about the Elderbloggers list for several weeks. “There is a ton of blogs that should be added. The longer you put it off, the more work it will be,” she says.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What with packing, moving and settling into a new home in Portland, Maine, over the past three months or so, TGB blog housekeeping has gone all to hell. It’s as though one hadn’t dusted in several months.

During the life of Time Goes By, as new elderbloggers have been discovered through various means, they are bookmarked, vetted and added every two or three weeks. But there has been a lot of bookmarking for the past few months and not much adding. So, on a beautiful, sunny, breezy morning a couple of days ago when Crabby Old Lady should have been hanging with the plants on her deck, she took several hours to plough through those bookmarks and there are now 30 or 40 new links.

Crabby probably should have listed them in this post so you could easily find the new ones, but she didn’t because it’s tedious enough inserting the html, checking the links and neatening the list into tens to make them easy to read. So you’re on your own. Crabby does highly recommend that you visit the blogs you’ve not seen before. They have been carefully selected for excellence.

In the past, Crabby Old Lady has railed in these pages against lengthy blogrolls, as well she should, and now she is part of the problem. The good news is more and more elders are joining the blogosphere. The bad news is that makes the list unwieldy – too many choices is no choice at all.

So during the next few weeks when Crabby has time and a tolerance for tedium, she will organize the list into categories on a page which will link from the left sidebar. Then, each week, she will feature five or ten elderblogs in place of that long, long list. That way, over time, readers can more easily check out elderbloggers they may not have met before.

It would help Crabby if elderbloggers on the list would email her with a category topic in which they believe they belong. Some are obvious – gardening, for example, and cooking, politics, social observation, etc. Others are what some call “identity” bloggers, mostly about daily life. Be sure to include the name of your blog, not just your name or email handle. With so many on the list now, Crabby’s memory isn’t always as sharp as she would like it to be.

In the near future, Crabby will also update the Honorary Elderbloggers list and there will some other changes coming along just as soon as Crabby Old Lady can make them happen.

Crabby thanks you for your indulgence in getting through this post which, upon re-reading, is about as tedious as writing html.

Comments

[Tabor]

So, you now have charged yourself with maintaining an endless library of blog links? I had just commented on another blog about optimism---but maybe I should have come here first?

[Rhea]

Hi, there,
I enjoy your blog. I just saw your post and believe you might like my blog, "The Boomer Chronicles," as an "honorary." I write a blog for baby boomers, but folks of all ages would enjoy it. Please check it out!
http://www.thegeminiweb.com/babyboomer/index.php

[Cathy]

I enjoy your blog so much - it's like you are the "matriarch" of those of us that blog when no one knew that anyone over 50 was blogging (even though I am just an elder baby :) )
Might be the youngest, but getting older every day and enjoying it!

[H.A. Page]

Gee Ronni, I think you hung the moon and I'm SO honored bo be on your blogroll... thanks. BTW, I think aging is like this: Baby, Youth, Prime and Old.

I'm just in my prime and plan to be there FOREVER.

However, I think wisdom comes with age and I love growing older. The reason one gets wiser is because the thin skin means less between the soul and the outside world.

MotherPie Cheers!!!!
P.S. Thanks again! ((((hugs)))

[trish]

I noticed that I've had several hits on my Worlds Touch site from this blog, and wondered what was up. People who like Worlds Touch might also like my personal blog at:
www.travelertrish.livejournal.com. I'm 60, in Darjeeling, India on a Rotary Club Cultural Ambassadorial Scholarship to learn Nepali. And volunteer to do web site revision and tech consulting.

[Terri]

As I said on my email to you...You're Ms. Organization. This housekeeping of yours sounds like a good idea to me. And if you have a maid helping you with the process, send her over to my blog when you're finished.

[janinsanfran]

Thnaks for the idea of dividing my blog roll into tens. I too manage a long, and in my case pretty idiosyncratic, list and hadn't thought of that.

Guess my site is some combination of political and photographic, FWIW.

[Kay Dennison]

Oh, Ronni, I sure know what effect moving can have on one's blog! I just did my blog housekeeping yesterday with a stern promise not to let it languish ever again . . . yeah right! And today I have real housekeeping to do! I'll know my time on Earth is done the day everything in my life is organized!

[Joy D]

This makes me think about organizing the links on my blog. Right now they are alphabetical since I use blogroll to arrange them. That would mean I'd have to do it myself, so I might leave them that way unless I can figure out something.

With this comment as an example, you can list my blog under "Babbling" since that's what I do on it. That would make mine the only one in that category since it might offend someone else to be there unless they also volunteer to be there. Otherwise, I'm not sure where it belongs. How about "Observations" or "Pop Culture" or "Life and Other Bittersweet Flavors"? Hmm, that's what I should have titled it.

[Emma Pod]

Hi Crabby Old Lady - love the blog and your "name". I'm 51 and have a co-worker who is late 60's. One day we said we feel like Crabby Old Women when all of the newer, younger folks come up with ideas we've already tried years ago. I said that makes us C....O....W's....omigosh we're COW's! We've started mooing at each other when we feel crabby. It helps to laugh.

Emma Pod

[Verna]

Thanks for listing me, Ronni!

Did you know that I have a Cranky Bitch persona who appears on my personal blog? She's similar to your Crabby Old Lady. I love having an alter ego I can blame things on. Handy, isn't it?

[kenju]

I am also honored to be in your blogroll, ronni, and if I had one, you'd be on it! I think my blog "justaskjudy" defies description, but real life chronicles seems to fit.

[ell]

I admire your resolve, Ronni.

But, I've got to agree with Joy D, above. I have no idea how to categorize myself, so will have to join her as a "Babbler" or maybe "Rambler".

[Alexandra]

Thank you for all you do! I really enjoy reading Timegoesby. You listed Wellfleet Chezsven Blog, which I appreciate, about living in Wellfleet and starting a B & B at 59. My first blog has become eclipsed somewhat by the one I write on the elderly care of my mother, By Bea's Bedside. I am honored that you read it on occasion. By the way, this week the Cape Cod Times did a piece on BBB which you can find here: http://chezsven.com/bybeasbedside.html.

[JTH]

Just found you via Doc's blog.
Will pass along to my wife, who just started her own blog this AM...

Don't know if I qualify as "Edler" as I'm just a year younger than Bush and Clinton, but seem to ghink I'm in my 30's.

My own "blather" blog: http://looneydunes.blogspot.com is for "public" others kept back for family and a few close friends.

13month old grandson has his own blog (managed by his mother).

Keep you the good work(s)

[Ken]

Hi Ronni!

I am so very honored that you have added me to your Elderblogger listing! And thank you so much for taking the time to comment on one of my research articles (part of a series) about Social Security.

I describe my blog as -
eclectic research about... Atheism, Cats, Chess, Economics, Futures, Humor, Nostalgia, Philosophy, Politics, Psychiatry...

I started blogging after reading the NY Times article in April 2006 about 'Elderbloggers'(where you were prominently mentioned). So I am still a neophyte at this.

Although I turn 61 on Sept. 12, I nevertheless continue to vigorously fight the idea of being an 'elder'. For example, my current tennis partner is 25 - and I defeated him last week, 6-4!

I love reading 'Crabby Old Lady' and greatly enjoy the online community that you have helped create.

Warmest Regards,
Ken

[Maya's Granny]

Ronni,
It is an honor to be on your blogroll. I am 64 and I guess you could catagorize my blog as personal and political -- sometimes pointing out where the two intersect. I talk about everything from the implications of the fasteners on children's clothing to stories of my family.

[M Sinclair Stevens]

Although it's always an honor to be included on someone's blogroll, feel free to delete me. I'm not an elderblogger. With a generation above me and one below me, I'm smack dab in the middle of my life. I am, in fact, one of your oft-reviled baby boomers (although I feel a bit young even for that label--my Dad served in Viet Nam not WWII).

Even if I were your age, I would consider myself a senior rather than an elder. I think there are generational differences between the 60-75 crowd (which I would term seniors) and the 75+ crowd (which I would term elders).

May I suggest North Country Maturing Gardener in my stead?
http://ncmg.blogspot.com/

[Mage]

Dear Crabby.........don't forget to add Autumn Leaves, and there are so many of us out there now that I can't even start to list my favoriets.

Catagories: Artists, writers, poets.

I highly reccomend: Marion B at opendiary.com Such a pungent woman. :)

[kate]

Thanks again for listing me. (KateThoughts)
I've moved over to typepad; the new address is http://omnicrone1.typepad.com/katethoughts/