A New Beginning

Today I leave behind my AOL Journal and begin anew. I think it will be a good move because of AOL's new "free" promotion. I liked the AOL Journal but blogspot.com seems to give me more control.

I had several readers with AOL and I hope they migrate with me. I plan to explore blogspot.com and make new friends, too. It is a big world out there; I aim to explore.

I live on a farm in southwestern Virginia in a county outside of Roanoke. My in-laws own this farm. My husband and I have 70 cows; we rent the property. My father-in-law has a herd, too. It is a rural area that is turning suburban with each passing day. Houses pop up like mushrooms as folks move in from the city.

I am a freelance writer. I write for the local weekly paper. This is low-paying part-time work that I hold quite dear. Local government is very interesting and it is the true foundation of the U.S. Here is where the real work is done, and where the things that really affect you and your neighbor take place (well, except for votes on minimum wage). I use my words to teach, to explain, to comment, to urge, to suggest, and to point out the obvious. News writing is a powerful vehicle.

My husband is a farmer, a ditch digger, and a firefighter. The latter job really pays the bills. The other two jobs are his loves, I think. Well, besides me.

We have no children, not by choice. We love our life, though. We dote on our nephews and our niece and try to be a good aunt and uncle. We care for my in-laws, who are in their 70s.
I will, I hope, write about all of this, and more. Politically I lean moderately left. That means I dislike most of what's going on in the world today, but not all of it. I don't know how you can see the things I have seen and not lean left. But that's a subject for another day.