What I learned this week: Fans make a difference

As the temperature soared to nearly 100 degrees early this week for the first time this season, I complained and complained about not having air-conditioning.

When temps did the same the next day, I pulled from storage our nine fans (some oscillating, some box, some desk top) and placed them strategically around the house. Then Jim went and bought two more (window fans), and we added those to the strategy.

The next day, as the temps rose yet again, I didn't complain about the heat. Because it wasn't all that hot in the house. Because of the fans.

I thought to myself: With the help of fans, I can weather most anything.

Then I considered how true that is — and not just because I have the humming and whirling of fan blades cooling things down throughout my house.

See, it's been a tough week. Not as tough and heartbreaking as what many around me have faced in the last few days, yet still a challenge... for me. I've had two very important writing deadlines to meet in the midst of one of the more trying family times — for myriad reasons — that I've dealt with in a while. There's the heat and my cold that won't go away. And there's the Black Forest Fire, which doesn't affect me directly, but sure affects my heart, soul, and mind at a time that all three seemed at maximum capacity.

Because of the tasks at hand, I've not been online much this week. Not on social media, not on my blog, not on the blogs of others, not reading and answering emails as I should. But every single time I did get online, I'd see something from Grandma's Briefs readers — be it number of visitors to my blog, Facebook updates, emails, tweets, or comments — that would warm my heart, make me smile, emphasize that there are people I've never, ever met who kindly and unselfishly support me and my words. People who are, for want of a better word (because this one sounds so vain, so egotistical), my fans.

Such things I'd see online kept me going, in one way or another. They made a difference. I made it to Friday. I completed (most of) the week's tasks. I met deadlines by Thursday for which I, on Monday, considered requesting extensions. I accomplished the family stuff I set out to do, too. And I even found time to consider and pray and fret about the fire.

So what I learned twice this week is this: With the help of fans, I can weather most anything. I'm incredibly thankful for fans. I'm incredibly thankful for you.

Have a wonderful weekend! I hope to see you on Monday.

(And please do continue to keep those affected by the Black Forest Fire in you thoughts and prayers. Thank you.)

Today's question:

What did you learn this week?

Pit bulls, owl quotes, and guilty babies

As long-time readers may have noticed—because of postings here and here, to name a few—I'm continually amused and sometimes even touched by the search terms that lead people to Grandma's Briefs.

Time again for me to share with you those that most make me go "Huh?"

First off, let me say that other than phrases related to grandmas and grandsons, always at the top of the query list for my site is pit bull. Why? Well, my dog Mickey is part pit bull (other part pointer). I occasionally blog about him. Apparently a lot of people are searching—be it out of love, fear, or disdain—for information on animals that look and act much like my Mickey. All I can figure is I need to start another blog, perhaps called Pit Bull Briefs. I have no doubt, according to my list of query terms, that it would be quite popular—at least on the search engines.

Other than pit bull, here are some of my more curious queries in the last week, plus links to what the unsuspecting searchers ended up being directed to.

I love macaroni — Believe it or not, in the past week I've had not only one person but two who reached Grandma's Briefs by typing that into the Google search bar. I do love macaroni, especially when paired with cheese. I have a feeling my fellow mac lovers were a little disappointed, though, when their love affair led them here.

Owl quotes — I'm not sure how, when, or why someone might think they'd find quotes from owls online (Is it even possible to quote an owl? Do they say anything quote worthy? In a language we'd understand?), but again, not just one but two people got here looking for wisdom from owls. Instead, they got this, which does feature a cool owl photo (not by me), but nothing uttered by an owl, not even a hoo-hoo of any sort.

Scholarships for grandmas — If there is such a thing, I want to sign up, too. Maybe the searcher, if they happen to be reading this, will share the successful results from their search. This sponsored post certainly didn't get them any closer to the pot of gold they were searching for.

Not just a chicken bagel recipe — I've heard of several kinds of bagels but never a chicken bagel. They certainly got something that's not just a chicken bagel recipe when they stumbled upon my Homemade Bagels post.

Guilty baby — This one makes me sad, to be quite honest. Babies are innocent, guiltless beings—even when at their most frustrating. I worry why one might search for that term and what they plan to do to the baby they assume is guilty. It's even more disconcerting when seeing that three people used that specific search term and ended up on Grandma's Briefs. I hope they thought twice about the guilt of the child in question when they were met with my post on being a guilt-ridden grandma.

So not guilty!

"Stinky diaper" — Yes, it even had the quote marks around it. If a dirty diaper was a challenge for them, I can only imagine what they thought when landing on my Tough (Grand) Mudder post.

Hide in leaves — If you need directions on how to do it, you're seriously missing out on the fallen leaf fun. Bubby had no trouble figuring it out, as evidenced here.

What is one word for not improved — Apparently this person never heard of an online thesaurus. I doubt this post gave them what they sought. Though maybe they enjoyed the photo of Bubby and Mac.

What to write about a grandson's smile — Nothing curious about that one, really. It's just a sweet search. And one that made me smile. I hope what they found here helped them write what they'd hoped to — and made them smile.

Today's question:

What did you last search for online?