Time marches on. Me? I go backward.

In my July 8th post I waxed eloquent (work with me, people) on the subject of followers. On that particular day, the tally of followers on blogs I read regularly that keep track of followers (as opposed to blogs I read regularly that do not keep track of followers) was:

Jinksy: 158
Snowbrush: 149
Grumpy Old Ken: 98
Carolina in Nederland: 72
Jeannelle of Iowa: 60
Pat, an Arkansas stamper: 51
Vonda: 46
Katherine DeChevalle in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand: 44
Me: 35

Today, August 3rd, I decided to check again, just for the fun of it. This is what I found:

Jinksy: 171 (change: +13)
Snowbrush: 158 (change: +9)
Grumpy Old Ken: 105 (change: +7)
Carolina in Nederland: 74 (change: +2)
Jeannelle of Iowa: 61 (change: +1)
Pat, an Arkansas stamper: 50 (change: -1)
Vonda: 48 (change: +2)
Katherine DeChevalle in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand: 47 (change: +3)
Me: 35 (change: zilch)

Some fun, huh?

If I wanted to be mean, I would go “Nyah, nyah, nyah” at Pat, an Arkansas stamper, whose following decreased ever so slightly, but Pat is much too nice a person to be mean to, so I will just bite my tongue instead. Also, going “Nyah, nyah, nyah” at Pat, an Arkansas stamper, would be a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

I have the same number of followers as I had a month ago. However, there has been activity, people. An Englishman named Brian who has been living in Spain for the past 22 years came alongside and joined himself to my little crowd and my total leaped, leaped I tell you, to 36. But then, a couple of days ago, someone else abandoned me left me high and dry apparently found a better way to spend his or her time.

As they say in France, La plus ca change, la plus c'est la meme chose (The more things change, the more they remain the same). Add your own accent marks to the French phrase, if you can. If you can’t, don’t. It doesn’t matter to me. I’ve given up the will to live.

Carolina said, and I quote, “Sometimes I think it would be better not to keep track of the ‘followers’. Every time one disappears I need therapy. But on the other hand, every time one is gained, we have champagne.”

As one whose sphere of influence seems to have, shall we say, stabilized, I propose the following change in our By-Laws:

Inasmuch as Jinksy, Snowbrush, and Grumpy Old Ken have had the largest increase in followers since our last meeting, they shall, both jointly and individually, provide champagne to the rest of us as a sort of consolation prize and incentive to continue, seeing as how our own monies, meager as they were to start with, cannot possibly cover the cost of both therapy and champagne.

All those in favor, say “Aye.” All those opposed, go pound sand.

The “ayes” have it.

Truth in blogging: I am not an official follower of anyone, but I am a loyal reader.

And just for the record, Virginia at Birmingham, Alabama, Daily Photo has 294 followers; Ryan at This Is Reverb has 2840 “readers” (whatever that means, probably something different from “followers”); and Ree Drummond, a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman, receives more comments on each one of her posts than all the numbers in this post added together.