To those who have missed the first 399 chapters of my blog (which I share daily on Facebook), allow me to give you a brief introduction to . . . well . . . me. My name is Brenda; my pen name is Brendochka, which is the nickname given to me many years ago by some Russian friends in Moscow, which is a long story that you will find in the earliest chapters of my aforesaid blog (at brendochka.com) if you would just read it.

Well, about me: I am retired. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m really pretty old. I have some disabilities and personal circumstances that keep me from doing many of the things I used to enjoy, mainly traveling. The two family pets are lovely but not very amusing; I’m not in the process of redecorating; and I haven’t found any interesting antiques to show you. Most of my friends are dead, and the few remaining ones live far, far away. So, there’s nothing really worth photographing. (I’ve even written about this — check out my 4/22/24 chapter on “The Inevitability of Invisibility.”)

What I do have, though, are words. Lots and lots of words. And I love putting them down “on paper,” so to speak, and sharing them with anyone who has the time and the interest to read them.

So I started this blog. I never expected it to go viral, but it was doing fairly well, especially after I began sharing it on Facebook. (The other day, someone in India read seven chapters.) However, I think it may have run its course, because my regular readership has dropped to . . . okay, so far today it’s zero. I think I know why, but I’d really like your input. If anyone is out there, that is.

Hello? HELLO??? Oh, there you are. Good . . .

To continue: I don’t post pictures of my activities because, as I said, I don’t have any really interesting ones any longer. Also, I am the least photogenic person I know. Do you really want to see photos of me sitting here tapping away at my iPad, or giving the dog her daily scratches, or maybe taking a stroll around the neighborhood? I thought not.

But I do write about interesting things that are happening in the world. That stuff fascinates me, and I tend to ramble on about it. Especially foreign affairs, and most particularly having to do with Russia. (If you had read my first 28 blog chapters, you’d understand why.) And sometimes I veer off onto subjects that just pop into my head, like the “joys” of aging, or lifestyles of yesterday vs. today, or what I really think of people like Donald Trump or Elon Musk or Kim Kardashian. Just stuff, and mostly in a humorous vein.

But, as you can see, I have never mastered the art of brevity, and I’m thinking that’s possibly why people don’t take the time to read me. Maybe Facebook just isn’t the right place for what I have to offer.

So if you’ve made it all the way through to the end of this monologue, could you perhaps do me a small favor and check out one or two of my blog chapters (still at brendochka.com), and let me know whether you think I should stop sharing them on Facebook. That’s all. I’m not going to stop writing the blog — just won’t take up all your valuable data space on FB with my thousands and thousands of words . . .

All right, I’ll shut up now. Thanks for sticking with me this far.

Brendochka
4/30/24