In spite of the fact that my hits did go back up to fairly normal yesterday (after a long weekend of hiding in a dark corner and biting my nails), I have spent some time reflecting on where in tarnation all the bloggers went Saturday and Sunday. Even though I am sorely tempted to take it personally and feel convinced that huge numbers of people developed a sudden and violent hatred of me, I know that I wasn’t being entirely rational (especially since a number of you reported the same downward trend on your own blogs and can I just say, “Phew”?)

I have listed some of my ideas below, however, if there are any of you who want to ‘fess up in the comment section as to where you were and what you were doing this weekend, that would be so fun and, as a bonus, might prevent a nervous breakdown on my end. Then again, perhaps not, depending on the form your comment takes. (Maybe I should rethink the comment thing.) So, were you . . .

1. Christmas shopping? After all, the election is over and people are either thinking that things are going to get better so they might as well spend—or they are thinking that this is the last decent Christmas we are going to see in many a long year. Either way, it could be that the pocket books are starting to creak open (inducing an unprecedented explosion in the moth population, but that’s clearly beside the point).

2. Fleeing your internet connection? It has to be done, once in while. I’m guessing. I don’t really know. Not from any kind of personal experience or anything. (Does it hurt?)

3. Hunting moose? I have no idea if this is moose season but I’m willing to bet my Canadian readers do. You know--know if it’s moose season or know of some other season they know is just ripe for, you know, shooting guns, eh? (This in no way reflects the actual speech patterns of actual Canadian bloggers I know, at least, not that I know of.)

4. Giving your mouse finger a rest? This is a legitimate reason to take a break since that finger is connected to arm muscles that can sting and cause agonizing pain all the way up the shoulder and into the neck area. (I should know! Woe is me. I also get thumb fatigue from trolling through the online TV guide. I think there are something like 1000 channels on our new DirectTV network and The Spouse hasn’t mustered up the energy required to rid us of the myriad shopping network channels, the superfluous religion channels--there can be only one--and the dozens of pay per view channels which we will never use. Netflix anyone?)

5. Nursing a deep and abiding sudden violent hatred of me and my constant shout outs about my book and other Neanderthal natterings?

BTW, in the comment section, you can just give a number. No need to spend any time explaining yourself, especially if you are listing # 5. Unless you really want to. In which case, I really want to hear. We all want to hear. According to one of my recent commentors, reading the witty comments you all leave is at least half the fun of reading my blog. (I think I’ll just go cry quietly in the corner some more 'cause it's already wet and so no harm done. For which I am very grateful.)