This here rant describes exactly what I don’t care about. I think the writers of Scrubs looked into my brain and came up with this. Go ahead and try to disagree with most of it.
This is short and cantankerous. Dr. Cox, take it away!
I am going to celebrate my daughter’s 1 year kidney transplant today. Leave a comment below and I will return it later.
Have a good Wednesday, Ralph has a doozy on Friday.
-Justin
Coots on a tire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It seems that all I do on here anymore is bitch. And it is sounding like a broken freaking record. But it is something posted at least. Here is the deal. Cantakerous Old Coots is darn near a one person operation from Ralph. I put some stuff in once in a while. Bob has been MIA while working through his various programs and computer problems.
So some input, what should we do with the Coots? I am sure that Ralph is getting tired of being the only Cantankerous one here, and I am not sure about his commitment to Cantankerosity after that Venice trip. He may need some more time to revive that cantankerous attitude.
As for me, I am trying to get back in the writing saddle all over the board. I ostensibly call myself a writer and creator of web content but I am resting on my laurels from the past. So, if you are reading this, tell me what you would like to see from the Coots. New content daily? A break from Ralph? Podcast revive? Bob’s politics? More News? More Hansi?
That comment section down there has been more active in the past couple of weeks than it has in a while. Keep it up. Let us know what the people want. While this is far from a democracy here, we will listen to your suggestions and implement or reject as needed. You all just have to let us know. We will be anxiously awaiting, well more like just sitting here doing something else waiting for comments to come in and enlighten us.
You all can do it. Just a few words down there. In the comments. you know at the bottom.
More to come…..
-Justin
Well hello there! I know at least 2 of our regular readers just fell off of their chairs when they saw that I had written this article and not Ralph. It has been a long time since this site has been much of anything except Ralph’s other blog. But fear not! Ralph is not the only one ready to Cantankerify your brains. I have grand plans of a series about Mother in Law’s that has taken a month to get the venom out of. More on that to come.
Cover of Yes
So gentle readers I am back. And here is what I have noticed. One of the key words for this site is Old. Yes, old. And I am getting old. Granted, I am almost 38 and in the grand scheme of things, that is not considered old. These days, even Bob and Ralph are not really considered old, retired or not. But, I am getting old.
Long time readers of any of my blogs (links here to my other blogs…..well maybe not) know that 5 years ago my 1 year old daughter ended up in kidney failure. 2 years of dialysis, a kidney transplant, and 3 years later we took her on a Make A Wish Trip to Disney World(can’t help that link it is the whole trip). That whole experience during those 5 years aged me. Enough to be a viable member off this blog, even if not old yet.
Life has thrown me some cement curve balls the past couple of years and I can’t catch very well. So I have been knocked down bleeding, but I still have managed to stand back up. But it ages me further. So here I sit, with 4 kids growing up, a pile of bills (that could really use some help from you if you happen to be shopping at Amazon. Just click to Amazon through my link over there in the sidebar. Thanks.) an attitude that is becoming more and more cantankerous, and a body that just feels old.
Ralph is always jealous of the sweet music that emanates from the kettlebells. I still like using the things but my rapidly aging body keeps telling me to slow down. I have finally got my elbow back to useful after 2 weeks. And then there are the grey hairs, and the unwanted ear hair that my wife seems to find great pleasure in curling with her fingernails if I don’t get it trimmed fast enough.
(St Mary and St Barlok)Monument to Sir Ralph Fitzherbert,d.1483,and his wife:detail of tomb-chest. Ralph’s children are shown on the side of the tomb. first three are Richard, Thomas and John – this is John who was Ralph’s heir. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
And the need for sleep. And it goes on and on. And it will not end until someone is nailing shut my pine box. One of the most disturbing things that my wife and I have been looking at over the past little while is what to do with our kids if something happens to both of us. That is a, well necessary thing but good hell it is depressing. And then looking at life insurance for both of us, and on the kids. Not to mention retirement savings.
As much as I hate thinking about it, one of these days, hopefully about 65 years in the future, I will be gone. My kids will need that life insurance to pay for the funeral or at least the dynamite to blow me up with. And maybe they will have a bit left over at the end. There is insurance for that as well. Now I am bumming myself out.
We all get older. in reality it all happens at the same rate. There are still 365.25 days in a year and the years go by one after the other. The adage is still true, “The only certainties in life are Death And Taxes.” And they will tax the hell out of you when you die. Bah. I need to get with Ralph and have him teach me how to not feel so old. But for now, I have kids to raise. 16 more years and the wife and I are buying a 1958 Corvette 2 seater and cruising the country….sans kids.
I had better get writing, but first some liniment and a nap…..in the middle ages I would be an old man…and most days lately, I feel like it.
What about all of you out there reading this? How do you feel?
Anyway, here is to more blog post from someone other than Ralph, as much as we love his take on things.
-Justin
Français : Un Starbucks à Paris (France) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What I like about traveling is seeing new places, learning how people live in other countries and finding out a few things about myself along the way. At least that’s the way I tell the story. In truth what I like most is when I can visit an exotic place without adjusting at all. I prefer the comfortable over the new.
It’s that way most of the time. I remark about the abundance of McDonald’s, carefully avoiding any patronage. I have smeared at Starbucks. I laughed at how we never heard anything but American music in Belgium. But even the most opinionated of culture snobs is forced to confess that things can get too strange. And so, as we start our second week in France, I find myself asking, “Where are the Starbucks?” Continue reading »
Image by v o 1 d via Flickr
Hello again folks. I was thinking for today about how this blog gets traffic. I see the stats in 3 different stat counters every day and they are all different. Different, but similar enough in trends to be useful.
Now you may have clicked into this post just to see what sage wisdom I have to offer when it comes to getting traffic to your blog. I have a short answer: Beats me. Now before you click off (literally, if you don’t like something on this blog just CLICK OFF!) at least read the rest of what I have to say.
Some people look into a business degree online when
they want to learn more about marketing to get the desired effects of blog traffic.
The trafffic here on the Coots is fairly constant. We get between 80 and 100 or so visitors per day. Sometimes there are more. Like Yesterday, with Ralphs post. There were 131 visitors at 1140 mountain time when I checked. Why so popular? I dunno, I can only hope people are linking to older posts, as I can see Ralph’s Current post has only garnered 10 visitors. Of course that was last week. This week has been no different though.
It doesn’t seem to matter too much how we promote each post. Twitter, linked In, Facebook, Digg, we advertise on each of these plus stumble upon and traffic is the same. People come to read about Cantankerousness and to have a good time. I would like to see more. So what do we do? I could ask each person who reads this post to tweet it to 10 others and ask them to do the same, but I am almost positive that somewhere that is illegal.
If not illegal then too much like a pyramid scheme. So don’t do that. If you have any ideas, please let me know! I would like to hear how you each get traffic, besides the “go out and comment” answer. This post will be linked on Twitter and all of the other sites, so we have that. Just, how do you each get traffic? And, do you have any blockbuster ideas for a cantankerous post that will go viral and make us all famous?
I can’t wait to hear from you all!
PS. go back and check out Ralph’s post from Wednesday. We would like to have some more answers to our poll!
-Justin
