200 Posts

What better way to note a landmark than with... another post?

As of now, there have been 200 posts by me. There have been SEVERAL hundred comments by all of you (not bad considering some of the challenging words used by the spam blocker).

There have been over 9,000 visits to this site in 9 months. Very flattering.

4 of you subscribe via RSS feeds.

Boosting my ego a bit, I'm up to #20 in the Top 100 of all Military blogs.

There has been an enormous outpouring of support, both pre-cancer (when I was just another Soldier supporting the Storm in Afghanistan) to now when I'm just a lucky guy who's helping his wife weather her storm.

So many of you have sent wonderful e-mails, real mail, and even packages (and some of you have been even supremely generous via PayPal.)

I continue to be amazed at the surefire generosity of those of you who support the troops. So many times, I was dismayed when some Joe would receive a package and be dismissive of its contents. While handling the mail, I often had the opportunity to note that while the contents of care packages may not have been of the highest monetary value (nor did it NEED to be), the amount spent on postage was perhaps best indicative of the support. For even when an Angel may send a box which may have only cost $5 at the local Wallyworld, it may have cost $15 to mail it. And for those of you who truly approach supporting the troops as an addictive hobby (you know who you are, and we LOVE you), I would see boxes with postage approaching $100.

There are those who counter-protest, those who visit injured troops, those who support families who've offered the supreme sacrifice, and those who write to a troop who's lonely and without a support network of his own.

It is, perhaps, in all of you that the truest nature of "Support Our Troops" is found. While likely never to be reported, there have surely been countless message drives, crafting sprees, rallies, and of course, racks and racks of cookies baked to remind us troops that what we see on TV is not reality and to not always believe what we read in the newspaper.

As I've said in other posts, I never foresaw what this blog would become, nor the apparent following it has gathered... I certainly never knew of the many wonderful people I would meet, even if not face to face. Agnieszka, Barb, Blackfive (I'm trying to get that form for you), CaliValleyGirl, Edward, GunnNutt, Holly Aho, Homefront Six, Household 6, Jen, Jenny, Mary Ann, Mary*Ann, NectarMaiden, Pat in NC, PJ, stormchaser, Tom Miller, Amy, Kayren, and of course, Anonymous.

Thank you... All.