Making my own noise

A few years back I spent a nice afternoon tucked in with friends at Old Town Bar. Our talk meandered, beer and leaping associations determining its course.

Which, eventually, found its way to the timeless topic of Golden Retrievers (my parents had Jefferson, pictured left).

So friend was telling this story, of a golden retriever digging a hole.

Each time the dirt the retriever had dislodged fell behind him he stopped dead and whirled around, surprised by an event he clearly did not connect to his own action.

We laughed but, overheard by a drunk next to us, soon were in a nasty argument/near-brawl, with the drunk defending the brilliance of the breed. (In this city, everyone/thing has its advocates.)

But the point of the story was my own retriever-like action of the other day.

Having re-published the blog in order to get the new banner up, I'd failed to re-insert the tracking code that tells me who visits, from where, and how long (scary, yes, I know).

So, for a few days I glumly checked into my StatLog to see nothing - no visitors new or returning, no page loads. My blog was web-dust.

Finally, came to and re-inserted the proper code and - voila - back on tracking. But, I'd failed to edit my own visits out of the picture.

I'd look at my blog, make sure everything was clicking along then check my stats page.

1 new visitor! Had visited 5 pages!

I went back, fiddle with blog, tramped around in old posts.

Back to stats page. 5 more page loads!

My blog was surging...


Look behind you and what do you see? Your own damn footsteps – time to stop blog-gazing.

And for the record - I love goldens. Jefferson, you're in my thoughts always.

C