200th visitor wins a free t-shirt

Since putting a hit counter on my site, I have been taking small joy in reaching "milestone" numbers. When I say milestone, I really just mean hits in multiples of 50. OK, 10. Multiples of 10. So imagine my joy in knowing that I was approaching 200 hits!! Last I saw, it was at 197. So I eat some dinner, go for a walk with the family. I come back, expecting (perhaps hoping is more appropriate) to see how far past the "milestone" I was. Turns out, I WAS THE 200th HIT. Just for a minute, ignore the fact that I have probably been responsible for 175 of those 200 hits and throw me a little pity. I hadn't been one of the "milestone" hits before, so to be number 200 was particularly heartbraking. So much so that my 5-month old son could detect it:

Boy: Dad, what's wrong? And what's with the t-shirt that says "200 hits"? Me: Oh, it's nothing. You're too young to understand these grown-up problems. Boy: Try me, dad. You might be surprised. Me: OK. Well, I have this website that I got going a few weeks ago, it's called a blog. Short for weblog. Boy: I know what a blog is, dad. Me: How do -- nevermind. Anyhoo, I update it regularly with stuff that's going through my head. I put a hit counter on the site recently -- you know what a hit counter is too, right? Boy: (nods) Me: OK. So I put the hit counter on, and I had been "celebrating" (he loves the "air quotes," they make him giggle) when I get to certain levels, like 100 or 200. I knew I would likely get to 200 today, so I had this t-shirt made. Boy: Yeah, that is pretty sad, dad. Me: ...um, I hadn't actually gotten to the sad part yet. Boy: Sorry. Go on. Me: Well, you've taken a little bit of the steam out of my story, but I'll continue. Anyway, I was checking the site to see if I passed 200 yet, and guess what? Boy: zzzzzzzzzzzz Me: (sigh)

(Important note: Some might be surprised at the level of conversation my 5-month old can maintain. I probably should have prefaced this by saying how advanced he is. We generally try not to tell too many people about it to avoid all the attention it could generate. That's why I feel perfectly comfortable discussing it on this site.)