Hello, out there? Anybody home?

My gosh, where IS everyone?

I added a stats tracker to my blog a few days ago, so I could get an idea of how many visits it gets over time. I've been curious about that for a while now, but Blogger doesn't provide that information. So when I ran across a freebie hit counter recently, I added it to the blog.

Today, to my surprise, the blog hasn't had *any* hits yet. Looks like everyone's taking a long weekend. ;o)

Next up for the Blog Remodeling Project: adding "comments" code to posts.

In other news... I got a text message today from the CNN Breaking News service. I have NO idea how I wound up subscribed to this service, and my several attempts to unsubscribe have proved fruitless. I wonder if someone mistyped *their* phone number and entered mine by mistake. In any case, I gave up on unsubscribing several months ago, and now I get the occasional headline in my text message inbox.

Today's headline: "CNN confirms three people have been killed in a coal mine accident in Princeton, Indiana." First of all, I was sorry to see that news. Second, I did a double-take when I realized that the location of the mine was NOT Utah, where there's been an ongoing story as rescuers try to dig to where 6 miners were trapped by a collapse a few days ago. In other words, we've now got two separate mine accidents in progress, at least one of which has got confirmed fatalities. :o( (The condition of the Utah miners is unknown at this time.)

It's been a rotten week or so in the news... last week, there was the MN bridge collapse, and this week, we have two mining accidents. Ugh. I realize that the news outlets' motto is, "If it bleeds, it leads" when they're prioritizing stories, but I still find it sad to see human suffering. Even if it IS condensed to 160-characters-or-less and disseminated as a text message.

When I see a news story about a disaster or a tragedy, I often respond by telling the Resident Felines, "You're lucky you're a cat. You don't have to think about these awful things." Looks like it's time for me to remind a couple of Stripey Critters once again of their good fortune. They've heard that phrase a lot this week.