BY CHOICE OR BY CHANCE

Oh, sweet serendipity of the search engine, how you make me smile!

As "The Home Stretch" celebrates it's 300th post today, I can't help but marvel at the number of visitors who have graced this blog with a little lookie-loo since I first began this cyber penning journey back in '06.

Nearly 12,300 folks have stopped by here.  And I am thankful for each and every one of them, whether they have arrived by choice or by chance.

To those beloved friends and family members who make it a point to click their way here each day: Thank you from the bottom of my cyber penning heart. Knowing you are out there, somewhere, actually reading my stuff makes getting up to write at 4 a.m. oh-so-worth it each day.

To those who have discovered my blog purely by accident -- i.e., you were Googling "seventh inning stretch" and you ended up at The Home Stretch instead -- I am thankful for you guys, too.  Especially those of you who arrive here from, say, The Russian Federation, or somewhere else mega miles from Iowa.

Yes, it is always fun to check my daily/monthly/yearly blog stats to see how each anonymous visitor arrives at The Home Stretch, or where they are from...

To the visitor who arrived at my recent Thou Shall Not Covet post (an essay on my most desired toys from my childhood) after Googling "battery for aunt jane pickle mobile":  I hope you have since found the battery you were looking for.

To the 90-some visitors -- mostly from other countries --  who have, over the past year, visited my old post Now Is The Winter Of Our Discotheque describing my apparent need for an ear horn: I appreciate the "hits"as they say in website lingo. But I am curious...were you searching for "hearing assistance devices" or "places to dance"? Or what?

And finally, to yesterday's visitor whose search question, "does the vergeina streach" (exact spelling) brought him or her to my recent Waltzing Virginia post discussing my love of dancing:  Sorry.  You must have been sorely disappointed.

Happy Friday, Folks!