The "Thanks To The Russians" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Adding another story to my blog about the historic snowstorm that hit the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  At least once a week I will go into the site and read the comments and respond where needed as well as check the stats which reflect the audience who is reading and from what countries where they may live.  Well, for the past few months I have been amazed at the readership from Russia.  Yesterday there were 178 Russian readers, many more than there from the United States.  I usually get a few readers every day from some of the different Caribbean islands where we have visited over the past fifteen years, mainly because of the many friends we have made in those islands.  Yesterday there was even one reader each from Mauritius and the Philippines.  

This is the world map on the "Blogger" website.  The green color shows the countries of the readers of the stories that I post daily.  The darker the green, the more the readership.  The very dark green in the upper-right is Russia and Ukraine.  The United States to the upper-left is a lighter shade of green since there are fewer readers at the moment from the United States.  It does change from day to day and week to week.  So interesting to watch the color changes on the map.

At times I get readers from places I had never heard of before.  It is so interesting to see the readership map which shows where the readers are located in green; the more readers, the darker the color of green.  This past week has been very bright green over Russia and the Ukraine.  Why I don't know.  I assume that my stories are translated by the "Blogger" website into the language of the reader that has accessed my stories.  A few summers ago, while visiting the beach side town of Ocean City, New Jersey in June with my family for vacation, the readership jumped almost 3,000 a day from readers in Germany.  After about two weeks it dropped, but I still get a few hundred readers a week from Germany.  I would love to know how they found my blog and the reasons for why they read it from day to day.  I realize that my prose does not match that of a seasoned newspaper writer or novelist, but that seems to be the reason why some read day after day.  They can understand my very basic writing skills which originated from years of schooling in the English language where I received mostly grades of "C".  "C", for those who are unfamiliar with the grading system in the schools of the United States, means average.  One nice feature on the "Blogger" website is the fact that as I type, it corrects my spelling instantly for me, unless I really botch a word and it has no idea what I just typed.  In that case it underlines the word and gives me a chance to click on it which takes me to their dictionary so I can correct my mistake.  You can't imagine how much I have enjoyed writing my stories which began as a diary of sorts so I could record the many stories of my life in written form that could be saved for my future generations to read.  Little did I know it would last for 2,318 stories and counting.  Thanks, Russia, for reading stories from a little town in south-eastern Pennsylvania where the mode of transportation in the county side is largely by horse and buggy by people who dress in mostly black and white clothing and farm the rich soil by hand and with horse drawn farm equipment.  I'm sure you would love it here in Lancaster County.  I have for 71 years!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.