I am NOT taking a leave of absence – just a vacation

I’ll be off the rest of the year. Such a declaration would be more dramatic if made on Labor Day, but guess who waits until the calendar is about to turn before trying to use up all his vacation days? Moron = me.

Leave of absences being all the rage, I  did want to say this. I don’t understand how the health issues Urban Meyer faces were serious enough to make him fear for his life Saturday but not so serious as to prevent him from deciding Sunday he’ll be OK to coach in 2010. His about-face won’t have much impact on Florida; I hope it doesn’t have a deleterious effect on Meyer.

Before I sign off, I need to re-tell a story: I spent last New Year’s Eve in a hotel room in Orlando wondering why more folks weren’t sitting home reading this dumb little blog. It was a major deal to me because I was hoping to reach two million page views on the year.  We ended up at 1.976 million, this despite the best efforts of various daughters and nieces who paused during their own New Year’s Eve celebration in Northern Kentucky to chip in with some clicks.

My goal for this year was, I believed, even more daring — three million page views. I’m proud and stunned to report that, as of this moment, we’re at 6,770,819. That’s more than a 300 percent increase. That is, at least to me, incredible.

We did 1.1 million clicks in November alone, and when I say “we” I’m not being disingenuous. Y’all have turned this little blog into a BIG blog, and for that I can offer only heartfelt gratitude. I’d love to say we’ll get only bigger in 2010, but frankly we’ve gotten so huge it’s scaring me. So I’ll just shut up and say thanks for a year beyond my imagination, and I’ll see you again in Twenty Ten.