Not including this one, I've written 914 posts. I estimate that I've featured 1500 or so cars. (I actually started to count them, then thought better of it.)
I've blown out 3 computers during that time. The first was infected with a nasty virus. (Now forever known - in my mind - as the Isuzu Bellel Virus, as that was the car I was researching when the virus attacked.) Even after removing the virus, it was never the same. The second crashed as I was downloading a very large file of photos a reader sent me, and the third, a used laptop my brother gave me to replace computer #2, literally started to smoke before it quit in pretty spectacular fashion. (Maybe HP subcontracted with Lucas for some of the parts.) The computer I'm using now is my backup computer and it's older than the any of the computers I mentioned above. So far it's working better than any of them, too. The guy I bought it from many years ago is a computer geek who also happens to be a car geek. (He owns a very nice VW R32) Maybe he programmed it to like searching for old cars and info about old cars.
I have a little stat counter on the blog which shows me how many "hits" I get and where they come from. It's no real surprise that most hits come from the US, followed by Great Britain, Canada and Australia. France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Portugal and Romania round out the Top 10. There are very few countries that I haven't gotten a hit from. Every now and then a hit will come from some place I've never heard of. A month or so ago I got a hit from Burkina Faso. I had to look it up. It turns out that it's a little country in Africa. It's one of the poorest countries in the world. At least one person there has a computer though, and they read a post I wrote about a Toyota Land Cruiser.
As I mentioned in the very first post, this blog is an outgrowth of something I used to do with a business associate. The "Car Geek" e-mails I'd send often lead to some great discussions. That continues, but now my discussions are with people are from all over the world. It's incredibly cool.
The high point for me is still the article that Brandes Elitch wrote about Just a Car Geek in Veloce Today. I've been a fan of Veloce Today for as long as I can remember. I guess it's similar to the feeling a guitarist would get if Eric Clapton said he liked his or her playing.
Recently, Just a Car Geek has been mentioned in a number of other publications. Most of that had to do with the 3 posts I wrote about my friend Jeff and his issues with the town of Stockbridge, MA. The publicity was great, but I wish I didn't have to write those posts. I still find the whole thing surreal. (For those who've asked, nothing much has changed. It's scheduled to go before a judge some time next year. For those who are not familiar with the story, here are links to the posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.)
There are days, sometimes weeks, where I believe that I have found and written about every bizarre, cool, unusual, offbeat, weird, interesting, rare car in the world. It's frustrating. At times I thought this blog may have run its course. Then, as if they sense it, someone will send me a link to something unusual or cool and I'm reinvigorated. Keep the submissions coming!
Going forward: Not much will change. I think I've found a niche with the odd, often overlooked, cars and a few unusual classics. One reader (Blair, I believe) suggested that I should include a PDF file of each car's original ad with the post I write about it. That's a really cool idea and something I will seriously consider doing after the first of the year.
So that's it. I want to thank everybody who reads this and especially everybody who sends me links to cars, leaves comments, sends me e-mails... everything. Thank you very, very much
And no, Meg, I still don't proofread.
