My site looks weird in sublymonal.

 

So, why all of the new traffic, the old timers ask? (No, not really. But maybe they're asking silently.)  Well, I have a rather large subscription list (much larger than the ones I choose to show), which used to fill my inbox with many pages of blogs per day.  However, now I can go a day or a two at a time with nothing in my mailbox from Xanga.  OK, so I don't check my email daily, so maybe you don't think it matters.  But I like that window into other people's mindsets.  So, when I had some spare time after LepreCon, I started checking out my blogrings.  Several have swelled in numbers, while one (the Star Wars BlogRing) has only had me post within the last year.  So, while checking out my blogrings and clicking on people within them (and those that commented on their pages) I found a few places to comment and a few I've added to my digest.  now I get a digest most days, even if it's only a few posts.

 

So what happened to all my peeps?  Some died, some migrated away to other blogs, and some quit or heavily reduced their blogging.  As with all my online acquaintances (and the few rl friends mixed in) I keep them and their families in my prayers, wherever they've gone. 

---

So where have I been?  Well, here's a quick recap: 

 

Last week I visited my grandparents' parish for mass, then went to their place for lunch and a game of Mexican Train Dominoes.  After that, I went to Imperial Outpost to play Fractured Souls.  It was good to see my old pal Chris again, even if I had to play my 4th level psiwar at APL10. 

 

Monday I started preparation for this Sunday's readings.  I often tell myself that I will prepare each Sunday's readings, not just the ones I'm scheduled for, but I never do.  I get so much more out of the mass when I've prepared the readings.  I just need to sit down and o it next week, keeping the momentum of this week. 

 

That afternoon we had a Hogwarts Live Action 3:  The Centaur of Hogsmeade casting call/planning meeting.  The game is coming along.  I really hope we can have more than two shopkeepers this year for Hogsmeade. 

 

Tuesday I felt my calf muscles get worse and worse on the ride into work.  I was late getting in, and walked with a slight limp.  Luckily, I got a ride home.  Wednesday morning I felt better, but in the less than a quarter of a mile ride to the bus stop I knew I wasn't riding the bike for the rest of the week.  I've been busing since.  A knife fight nearly broke out between some bus riders that didn't like each other's eye contact.  Yeah, eye contact is worth your life.    How do people end up like that? 

 

Tonight this guy offers to buy a bottle of water off me on my way into the grocer.  So I tug one out of my holder and hand it to him and rush inside before they close.  As I do so (because I had absolutely no fresh fruit and nearly no fresh vegetables or tortillas in the house, having needed to go shopping on Sunday or Monday, and I was hoping to have dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow), he says, "Thank you, Paul."  So I do a double take, and no, I don't recognize him.  He wasn't out there a few minutes later when I left, so I may never know.  This kind of thing happens to me a lot, and I wonder, are these people I should know?  Did I just strike up a conversation once with this individual who found me memorable or was this once an acquaintance of mine, long forgotten?  I worry that I'm not in right relationship with the world if all these people are supposed to be known by me.  Which kicks me back into prayer for the individual, myself, and those who encounter need from either end of the spectrum. 

---

Why do I get a lot of hits on this site from California, France, and Italy? 

 

I'm going to drop that useless SW blogring as soon as I finish this post.  I have been a member since the 27th of September 2002, but now I will have to search out a new SW-related blogring.  Does anyone have any suggestions? 

 

Speaking of finishing this post...thanks to Alluveal for the quiz: