It's Jamie's fault.
Some time ago I included a counter on my blog to see what the general level of interest might be. The above image is the result...clearly an unrealistic representation. In truth I can probably count on maybe two sets of hands the people I think are reading this: Jamie, G.W., maybe Bill and Dana and a few other Northern Virginia friends (I saw your sweet comments on the race's website, Kristin. Maybe you're checking in here, too?) Of course there's my daughter Raine and a few of her friends, probably more at her prompting than from any particular interest in me. I was was tickled to learn, however, that Amanda (hi, Amanda) told Raine that she found the best way to pass time when breast feeding her new child was to 'read your dad's blog.'
There's the Gexto, Spain gang (hi, everyone) and Anya and Sergei in Chelyabinsk (that little dot in the middle of Russia), and perhaps Anya and Sveta's mom Ludmilla, too, though she doesn't really speak that much English so she must be just looking at the pics. But who's that in Moscow? Sveta and Brian must are probably buried in the crowd of dots around Northern Virginia, as are Stiva (Steve and Iva). Steve's parents Maddie and David are probably one of those dots in out in the midwest (is that huge dot you, Maddie? Bless you).
There's Christina in Hawaii, yes, though now a lot of the hits attributed to Maui will be simply me updating my blog while here and constantly hitting 'refresh' to see if the layout works.
I see Jamie in Quito, Ecuador (his name is pronouned 'HY-mee' and not to be confused with Florida's 'JAY-mee') and a little further south in Rio Bamba there's Manuela (how's it going with your new guy, What's-His-Face?).
I can see Gay in Fremantle and Dilip in India (though I'm not sure which dot is you, Dilip). I see Claudia down there in Columbia (bless you a thousand times for that Salvador experience...I still get misty-eyed when I think of that moment of spotting you on the dock after my first crossing of the Atlantic).
Then there's some west coasts relatives who check in, I'm gathering.
That comes out to about twenty or so. But really...who ARE all the rest of those people? Who do I know in Japan or China (other than Fei, who's much further north along the coast than that huge dot and hasn't been abe to bypass the Chinese filters to access my blog, anyway) or deep in the Amazon jungle of Brazil?
It's Jamie's fault. Jamie's blog is world-renowned and linked to by numerous other world-renowned websites. The most widely read E-zine on Hanggliding, The Oz Report, frequently has direct links to Jamie's reports on various hanggliding activities. So when people end up at Jamie's site, either because they know her (perhaps a third of the world) or because they were directed there by link (another third of the world), they see this:
"Who's this Tim Ettridge?" they perhaps wonder. It's good for one hit from some obscure place on the globe and then they're gone.
Really, friends (all 22 of you), happy to keep all of you as updated as you might wish. Don't have the first clue as to who the rest of those people are.
