They're Letting Anyone Have a Blog These Days

I love the Internets as much as the next person (and probably more than the person after him), but it can be a real brain drain. Take this evening, for example. I'm tired and should've gone to bed long ago. However, I stopped in at my site meter before closing the computer for the night, because I find it endlessly fascinating. I may have mentioned this before.

Well, so there's this phenomenon that maybe some of you more tech savvy types can explain to me. Somehow, on occasion, I get someone on my blog who, according to the site meter, has linked over from someone else's blog - one I don't recognize. Of course, I must investigate! Why go to bed when there's a mystery to solve!

So tonight I find myself on a blog that I will not link to because doing so would be just plain mean - too mean even for me - but let me just say it's awful. Terrible, horrible, no good very bad writing, and there's a photo of her unfortunate-looking dog leaping out of the banner at the top of the page. (You know, they let anyone have a blog these days; not like the test we had to take to prove that we're Super Cool Hipsters back in '05...) So this woman's got a blog roll that consists of other couples listed by their names (The Smiths, The Whiteys, The Honkeys, The Conservatives - you get the idea) and - this is where the brain drain problem becomes that much more serious - I am compelled to check some of them out. It's like being drawn to a train wreck. Yup, more young couples with photos of their dogs leaping out of their blogs, photos of their unborn children's nurseries, and stories about life in small-town Missouri. Most had Bible quotes all over the place, including in the banner (under the dog picture, usually). The very best had a Father's Day post written to her husband as if by their dog.

I'm sorry. I know you pet lovers out there will hate me for this, but that is just completely absurd! Let me preface this by saying that I have never had a pet because my family was allergic to everything. So I totally cannot relate. I do like dogs and think maybe we'll get one someday when the boys have left home, but I'm not big into animals in general. However. A pet is not a baby. I wish my babies could have run outside and taken care of their business in the back yard, but they could not. I have never been able to pour some food into a bowl on the floor and call it dinner. I couldn't leave my babies at a kennel for a week when I went on a vacation. Heck, I can't even afford a vacation, which is probably the most obvious indication that I have a child or two rather than a pet!

Oh, those blogs, they did me in. And there was certainly no link over to my blog there, so I have no earthly idea how someone got to me from there. All I know is that it frightened me, just as I'm certain that stranger felt he or she had landed on a distant planet upon arriving here. It served as a reminder of where those people are who voted for George Bush - twice! - and I could not sleep until I'd gotten it off my chest tonight. I guess it was in God's dog's hands.