I just kissed Jesse and saw him be the last Hoggard child to board a daily school bus. 

The ritual that transpired this morning started ten years ago with now-15-year-old Jackson bravely struggling to get up that first high step under the weight of his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bookbag.  It was difficult for me to see him nervously take his seat for the ride to his first day of kindergarden all those years ago.  It was just as difficult to watch Josie and Jesse do the same thing in later years with their own themed book bags.

The ritual ended today with Jesse bounding down the stairs, late again, asking, "Dad... where's my Ipod?."  After he took his seat on the bus, he made eye contact with me just like he does every morning - just like his two siblings before him did every morning - and we blew each other yet another kiss as the bus pulled away - just as his brother and sister did every morning before him.

Such rituals don't seem to be allowed for middle schoolers and beyond and I will miss it - a lot.

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The N&R's Lorraine Ahearn thinks we should all come together and help save Greensboro's "only bastion of power, influence and salad dressings named after deceased insurance executives".  She suggests that we need come together and "save the City Club, the very symbol of what made Greensboro great. Or pretty good."

She also gives a very funny nod to the Blogger Meetup crowd.  Read it all.

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Blogebrity is pretty cool.  Recently Slashdotted, they compile a list of A, B or C level webloggers on a national basis. But I discovered them nefariously.

Because Cone and I utilize the same lame blog software (RadioUserland) I am able to see where the Blogfather and other top 100 Radio blogger's readers come from and how many of them there are. (the numbers reset @ 2:00a)  Today, Ed added 53 (possibly new) readers to his daily totals via this new blogroll called Blogebrity.

Lesson to be learned: If you want to get read, write something interesting, interject a line or two giving us your take on that "something", and write often.  Write about topical issues that you know something about and do it well... then repeat those efforts on a daily basis.  Or in the simpler words of Cone himself, "Have a take and don't suck." 

Make no mistake: Cone is getting more and more readers because he works his ass off at this blogging thing every day.  Anyone's success can be duplicated if that is your goal.  But such duplication requires persistance, daily involvment, good writing, a spellchecker and a whole lot of time and effort.  You also must read a lot of blogs and honor them with a link from time to time.  Its called,... wait for it... work. 

******

Uddate - Lenslinger informs us he made the "C" list - which further proves my point because there is no better writing than what Stewart offers up every day on his excellent blog.

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