I Am Honored You Read 'The Ready Line'

I launched The Ready Line last October. I had been writing my Cash On Cash blog for some time, commenting on commercial/investment real estate and counseling investors on 1031 tax-deferred exchanges. While at the Gun Rights Policy Conference last fall, I was motivated to create something on firearms and politics. I had been noodling some ideas around for a couple of years but didn't know which direction to go. As to starting a firearms and politics journal, I wasn't sure how much traffic might come through to read my opinion on legislation, the American Arms Wars, or whether people would be interested in my sometimes twisted sense of humor.

Regardless, I have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy contributing and commenting on politics pretty much every day. This has been a great venue for me, a writer/reporter by training who over the years has worked a regular newspaper beat, covered county government and written features, penned a regular business column, edited a trade publication for the bar industry, directed PR campaigns, overseen two corporate public relations departments, and more recently owned a public relations consulting firm. Over my lifetime I've thrown block, dug ditches, cleaned hog pens, painted apartments in 100+ degree weather, and run night audits for a major discount hotel chain. In between, I've written position papers and speeches on the Second Amendment, and testified too many times to mention before lawmakers of various stripes. But at my core, I guess I'll always be in love with the written word.

One month ago today, I added SiteMeter to The Ready Line, mostly out of curiousity about how much traffic was coming through (and partly because of my never-ending quest to learn how things work -- in this case, SiteMeter). I don't know how to say this other than I have been blown away by the totals. I have no idea whether, relatively speaking, these numbers are high or low. But in the one month since I started measuring useage, this online journal (as of this writing) has had 3,388 unique visits.

I am humbled beyond words. And words usually come easy for me. A private person by nature, this journal has blown out of the water my philosophy of "low profile, low risk." Still, it is worth it. There are a lot of great blogs and websites out there, and I try to read as many as I can. To stay informed. As I like to say, "To Be Ready." I haven't done it alone either. I've gotten great story ideas from readers. I have enjoyed dialogue and debate -- both in the public comments section and privately over email. Plus, I've benefitted from contributions by respected colleagues: competitive shooter and sales professional Jude Cuddy; college student Daniel Greenberg; and educator Ellen Wickham. You each bring very unique perspectives to this discussion. That the three of you wanted to share your personal insight, and thought enough of this vehicle to do so, means a lot. I am indebted to each of you.

To our readers, I thank you for your confidence in The Ready Line . . . or perhaps for slowing down to look at a train wreck. No matter your reason for dropping in to catch the words and thoughts written here, I appreciate that you think enough of this product to stop by.

I promise to always keep things interesting.