Rant #2,000: 2,000 Miles From Home

Yes, this is the 2,000th post to appear on the Ranting and Raving site.

Actually, it is the official 2000th post on this site, and its predecessor site, the one that was hacked several months ago.

One day, probably in the distant future, the entire cadre of posts will be here, on one single site, but for right now, let's just say that a good portion of the posts from the two sites are here.

The first posts--yes, two of them, were on May 4, 2009, and here and there, there have been some extra posts put up, so the number of posts--or Rants--is over 2,000, but we will use 2,000 as a nice round number.

More than eight years have passed since I put up the first post, and looking back, creating this blog is one of the best things I ever did.

I have told the story numerous times.

At work, I have to write what I have to write to accommodate the world that I cover and get paid to cover.

Here, I get my juices flowing again.

I can write about anything I want to write about, and while I don't get paid for it, I do get the satisfaction of getting my thoughts out to whoever wants to read what I have to say.

Nobody has to agree with me, and that is fine. I learn a lot from the disagreements.

As long as they don't get chippy--and yes, many of the disagreements do get a bit heated--I am fine with your reactions, whether positive of negative.

I have written on so many topics over the past eight years that I probably do, at times, repeat myself, but I try not to do that.

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know where I stand on a lot of issues, both important issues and non-important ones.

It is a fun thing to have my own personal, electronic soap box to vent my frustrations, and I am glad that people are actually reading what I write.

No, I don't have a large bunch of people coming here on a daily basis--I am barely in the search engines, if I am at all--but I do publicize the site through Facebook.

And with the built-in barometers that Google provide, I pretty much know who is visiting the site, the length of time they spend here, and also pretty much where visitors are looking into what I say, by state and country.

And yes, while most people visiting here are from the U.S., the blog does have readers from elsewhere around the world.

And thanks to you, my readers, who come here if not every day, than at least when the topic interests you, and spend a few minutes here.

Sure, I know you rock your head and roll your eyes at times at what I have to say, but if I can elicit some reaction to what I put here, that is fine.

So all in all, the Ranting and Raving Blog--both of them--has been a great experience for me, and I hope a good experience for you too.

Onward and upward from here. I figure we will hit 3,000 by about 2022 or so, and by then I will be 65 years young, and the blog will be celebrating its bar mitzvah year.

Wow!