Christmas Lights

Got the Christmas lights finished while the weather was still warm. It was 65 degrees or better this past weekend when I did most of the work. The final touches were completed on Monday night while temps remained near 60 degrees.

I'm glad of it. It was 71 today before the cold front moved through. Within an hour it was in the mid-fifties and still falling. Predictions are for freezing rain, sleet and snow, maybe even thunder-snow, for the next couple of days. All that plus bitter cold air temperatures and wind chills near or below zero make me happy to report I'll be reading a book in front of the fireplace this weekend. Or working on YourPanorama.com.

R & R

Back from a short break over the holiday and the fishing was great. The river was up on Thursday and murky from the rains earlier in the week but the trout were biting anyway. I ventured out in my chest waders and was able to get further out into the current than I thought.

Limited out (5 fish) on Thursday although I caught a total of nine and had to release a couple. A few more released themselves, that is they came loose before I could land them.

On Friday, the river was down about a foot from the previous day and the water was crystal clear. A slight rise was coming through as a damn from one of the upstream lakes was opened. Perfect conditions for trout fishing, but no bites. I cast for about an hour with no results before catching three in as many attempts. Another spell of no bites, then landed two more in quick succession to bag my limit. That's the five from Friday in the photo.

Left for home on Friday evening after dining on catfish at Fred's Fish House in Mountain Home, Arkansas. It's a great place for fish although a little pricey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I'm heading off to Calico Rock, Arkansas for a little food, some great trout fishing and a chance to relax a little.

Wrestling with Keywords

I've been trying to come up with a productive campaign using Google AdWords for the new web site, but it's very tough to hone them down to a workable number ... a productive, workable number.

I tried the local market and got few hits. Nationwide presented plenty of hits but they were not quality page views as few people stayed on the site and no one joined as members. We have a regional news site so if Google content ads are shown to people not interested in the local area, they won't stay. One click and they're out of there.

From the data shown in my Google AdWords account, it's difficult to decipher the detail as to where the page impressions are coming from. I know most clicks arrive through Google content, but that is, apparently, not keyword based. I think the ads will work out eventually, but thisis going to require some trial and error.

It Starts .....

We're in the middle of starting up and trying to make a go of a new project at the office. It's a big undertaking and a major new direction for the company. I'll talk about that a lot in this blog - what we tried that worked, what failed, what we could have done better. But I'll also want to take some time to discuss other things on my mind each day. Some funny stuff, some serious stuff and just about anything else that makes this journey through life an interesting voyage.

Something will be going on here every day. Hope you'll stop by once in awhile to see what it is.