The January Jump

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


The Ramble serves as a collecting point for my views on things that interest me, and although I put it out on the Internet for all to read, I know that few people do.   In fact, I can prove that few people read my ramblings because I use a service that counts the hits for me and tells me where most of the visitors come from, as well as what terms some were searching that led them to one of my posts.  (www.sitemeter.com)

On an average day twenty-five or thirty people find their way to Pa Rock's Ramble, and in an average week two or three of those will leave a comment on some posting - often an old one.   That's plenty.  I am basically writing for my own enjoyment and to keep a running history of how I feel about various things.  Someday a few of my grandchildren - or their grandchildren - may read through this collection of gibberish and be truly horrified at their Pa Rock's bizarre views.  Hope so.

Last January the Ramble caught fire when my nephew, Reed Smith, was lying comatose in an Amarillo hospital following the horrible New Year's Eve accident that killed his father and his father's cousin.   For several days this blog was the only regular outlet for news on Reed's condition, and he had literally hundreds of friends who checked in regularly.  It was normal at that time for the Ramble to receive over 500 hits a day.  A few stayed connected with me even after Reed's miraculous recovery.

(Reed Smith is easily the second most popular native-born Arkansan in the world, and if he ever gets into politics he will quickly leave Bill "Bubba" Clinton in the dust!)

This week the Ramble caught fire again, although briefly.  The thing that brought this January jump was an entry that I wrote on Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on October 24, 2009.  It was a brief biographical sketch in which I recognized her as the bright spot in the Arizona congressional delegation.

Last Saturday (Friday in the States) I had a whopping twenty-five visitors to the Ramble.  On the following day, the day that Gabby Giffords and others were savagely attacked in Tucson, the hits jumped to 1,058 due to people searching for information on her via the Internet.   The next day the hits were down to 155, then 80, and by yesterday only 52 people stopped by.

I know that my posts last January kept people up-to-date on Reed's condition, and I hope that my old biographical piece on Gabby Giffords was helpful to those who were trying to learn more about one of the best people in Congress.

I am glad to have people occasionally stop by to peruse my work (despite my grumblings to the contrary), but I would hope to reach a point where they aren't delivered to the Ramble by a tragedy.

For those who stopped by the Ramble today, please continue to keep the Tucson victims and their families in your thoughts and prayers.