Why'd I wait?

What do you write about when you don't know what you want to write about?

Asking for a friend...

I didn't intend to wait this long between posts, really, but you people kind of intimidated me.

A.) in a good way (I'll explain momentarily)
B.) yes, I said "you people"


When I started scribbling this humble, little, blog seven or so years ago, I did it mostly for my own enjoyment.  Quickly, howeva, I got the semi-instant gratification of seeing how many people looked at the page.  And, quite honestly, that triggered a little internal competition with myself to get more of you to read.  The more views a post gets, the better I feel about how I did on it.  The analytics that come with the platform I use (Google) are pretty bare bones and I'm too cheap to look into paying for better or more helpful information.  I see how many total views, what time of day they take place, how they found me (typically, through Facebook) and what the viewers country of origin is.  Apparently France loves me.  Ok, that's a bit of a stretch.  France has acknowledged my existence.  635 times...  But, beyond those types of numbers, I don't know much about why people read the stuff I produce.  Of course, I'd like to think it's because it's so amazing, but I'm nothing if not a realist.

And I've found I'm not a reliable indicator of what will or won't get read.  Some of the pieces I've written, I felt really good about.  Like the one I wrote to a friend of mine that lost her husband suddenly to an industrial accident (127 views).  I thought it was both heartfelt and sound advice and I was surprised and a little disappointed it didn't generate more views.  Grief posts have tended to produce some of the better numbers too.  But not that one.

Pink Heals musings have been another frequent topic over the years and they've run the gamut from top 10 views to abysmal, with all points in between.  (256 views to 10 views)

Posts about life in the firehouse have been very popular, four of the top 10, including what was, for over a year, the most popular post I've produced (370 views) when I wrote about delivering Mary in the back of Medic 2.

But the last two have kinda busted the curve.  My post about Victim Impact Panels drew 445 views.  I was stunned.  And very grateful for all of the readers.  But then, my post about visiting Caitlin's crash site generated 1233 views.  Almost triple my previous "best".

Even now, almost three weeks after the fact, that still blows my mind.  I mean, I felt good about the post when I wrote it, but, like I said, that doesn't always mean anything.  Once I hit "post" I check back from time to time to see how the piece is doing.  When I saw how that one took off, I couldn't stop looking at it.  And trying to figure out how and why.  Which, of course, I was unable to do.  And that brings me to the intimidated part.

I spent several days trying to figure out what I could write about to top those numbers.

And, obvs, drawing a big fat zero.

But I missed writing, it's more or less a part of my routine plus I enjoy doing it.  So, I decided to "let it rip".  This is the result.  #sorrynotsorry

I appreciate each and every viewer, each and every time you view.  Just so you know, I've resisted doing things to make the "viewing experience" less pleasant.  I thought about (and quickly discarded said thought) placing ads on the site.  And again, due to my being cheap, I won't pay to push the site.  It feels too artificial and I'd rather earn your views by my own merits rather than because I've got an extra $20 in my pocket.

Before you go thinking "gee whiz, he's so noble" (but if you want to think that, I won't stop you) (just sayin) I will ask that, if you get to this through a social media platform, whichever it may be, take a second to react to it by "like or 💗" or whatever method there may be to do so.  You also have my permission to "share" anything I post if you see fit.  Thanks in advance.  Don't get me wrong either.  If you think it's crap so be it.  But if it made you laugh or cry or think or any combination of those, hook a brother up.

Now that I've gotten this out of the way, I'm hopeful I'll be producing a little more on the regular.  The most I've written in one year was 40 posts, back in 2013.  My goal is to hit 50 this year.  Two down, 48 to go.

Peace