Blogging

One day last week, I got hit with an unprecedented barrage of spammers trying to sign up for this blog. In just over 24 hours, nearly 250 spammers signed up. It took me nearly half an hour to clear them out.

On a normal day, I will get three or four, sometimes five or ten. Even though this blog has been around since 2005, I have never, ever had anything like what happened last week.

In the hope of bringing it to a screeching halt, I have had to make adjustments. Specifically, I have had to disable sign-ups altogether and, for the time being, only those actually registered (101 people) are permitted to leave comments after logging in. For any of you who have tried to leave comments in the last week but have been unable to do so, at least you now understand why. I hope to change all of that later this week, as I’m hoping that being off the spamming radar for a week will help.

I very much enjoy the give and take in the comments, and greatly resent that the spammers have forced me to do what I did last week. I regret not being able to enjoy the comments, and very much look forward to them being open and available again in a matter of a few more days.

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I spent most of my youth playing baseball. There was baseball season, and then there was other stuff we did until it was baseball season again, like going to school. I played softball well into my forties.

Now that I’m about to turn 50, I am paying the price for that lifetime spent playing baseball. My right acromioclavicular joint (part of the shoulder structure) is filled with bone spurs and arthritis, and the bone spurs constantly irritate the surrounding tendons, which means that I have a perpetual case of very painful tendonitis that nothing helps. The only thing that will help is to remove the bone spurs that cause the irritation of the tendons. Considering that I’m right handed and was a pitcher for a part of my baseball career, this does not come as a huge surprise.

So, come Wednesday afternoon, I am having surgery to go in and clean all of that accumulated junk out of the joint. Assuming that there is no involvement of the rotator cuff–and the MRI does not show any–I should be out of the sling in about ten days and then onto about six weeks of rehab. My personal trainer has been working hard on strengthening my rotator cuff since this problem became acute in October, so hopefully, the physical therapy won’t be too bad as a result.

If the rotator cuff is involved–the orthopedist won’t know for sure until he gets in there on Wednesday–then it gets ugly. Really ugly. Then, I’m in a sling and sleeping in a recliner for six weeks with lots of thoroughly unpleasant physical therapy to survive.

So, my point is that having my right arm in a sling means that I won’t be around here much for the next two weeks for sure. Once I know how it went and am allowed to have some use of my right arm, I will update this. For now though, effective tomorrow afternoon, I fade to black for a little while. Wish me luck. In the meantime, I will miss my interactions here.

UPDATE: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7: I’m now five days post-surgical. The good news is that there was no tear in the rotator cuff, and the surgeon only had to clean out the bone spurs and arthritis. That’s very good news indeed. The bad news is that I’ve still got a pretty fair amount of pain, although I’ve managed to avoid taking any more percocet since bedtime on Saturday night (I really don’t like how they make me feel at all). I put in half a day at the office Friday and about 3/4 of a day at the office today.

I’ve now been out of the sling for about two hours tonight. It aches, but it’s tolerable. I hope to be able to put in a full day of work tomorrow, and I’m going to try to be out of the sling for much of the day while there.

Thanks to everyone for all of the good wishes and good thoughts stated here. You have no idea how much it means to me.

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An update to my blogroll was LONG overdue. I don’t think I’ve done one in about a year, and it showed. I deleted a handful of dead ones, such as Touch the Elbow, which faded to black for the SECOND time, and added a bunch of new ones, such as Dave Powell’s excellent Chickamauga blog (which should have been added long ago).

If anyone knows of other blogs that should be listed, please let me know, and I will be happy to consider adding them.

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I was shocked today to learn that this little old blog was named THE highest ranked Civil War blog on the Internet by Online Courses.net, which is quite an unexpected honor. I had no clue, and frankly had no such expectation of such an honor, given that I took a long hiatus from blogging and have significantly cut back on my posting frequency from the first four years of the blog. I’m very flattered to be given such an honor, and am humbled by it.

Congratulations to everyone else who made the list, which also shows me that I have some serious adjustments to make to my blogroll this weekend. More on that later.

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….And so 2010 fades to black as the lights begin to shine on 2011….

2011 brings the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and I’m sure that we will have many more interesting things to discuss as it plays out.

With thanks to Kevin Levin for a GREAT idea, I’d like to give you, my readers, the last word as the year comes to an end. Please feel free to share your final thoughts for the year here.

To all of you, I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year.

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As tonight is Christmas Eve, I thought I would share a few holiday wishes, in no particular order:

To the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission: The wisdom to continue to make the correct decision and to again deny a casino license to LeVan and his crew in Gettysburg.

To the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association: Twenty pieces of silver, the price for selling your collective souls to the devil. Oh, wait. I forgot…you already are getting $250,000 per year from Dave LeVan for selling your souls by supporting the battlefield casino and have entirely abandoned any pretense of being a legitimate battlefield preservation and advocacy organization. Never mind.

To Civil War Sesquicentennial Commissions around the United States: Sufficient funding to do the job correctly and a rebirth of interest in the Civil War triggered by the events of the Sesquicentennial.

To Ed Bearss: Many more years of your amazing stamina and knowledge. You are an inspiration to me, and I cherish every chance I get to share a battlefield with you.

To the burgeoning neo-Confederate, nullification, and secessionist movements in this country: The ability and wisdom to understand that George Santayana was absolutely correct when he wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

To Kevin Levin: Keep fighting the good fight, Kevin.

To the Civil War Preservation Trust: Keep fighting the good fight, my friends. Nobody does it better than you do. It’s my honor and privilege to be associated with your efforts.

To the Brandy Station Foundation and the Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation: Keep fighting the good fight.

To all of my fellow authors in the Civil War history community: LOTS of book sales in 2011.

To Ted Savas: Nobody does a better job of publishing and marketing high-quality Civil War books than you do, Ted. May 2011 be filled with many more (including one of mine).

To my friends in the National Park Service: That you continue to do a great job of shepherding, preserving, and interpreting our battlefields in the face of ever-shrinking budgets.

To Mike Peters: More bookshelves.

To me: More bookshelves.

To Susan Wittenberg: The patience to continue to put up with me all of these many years later.

To Michael Aubrecht: A healthy 2011 and seeing your signature on a publishing contract for You Stink!.

For Headless Billy: A new head and a new hand in 2011.

To Drew Wagenhoffer: Lots more of your excellent book reviews in 2011.

To Brooks Simpson: Nothing but success with your already excellent new blog.

To Bomber: A quick and complete recovery and many more years of happy battlefield romping.

To Dan Mallock: A chance to finally write that novel of yours and a job you love.

To Keith and Jill Toney: Health and the opportunity to spend more time in Gettysburg.

To Stan and Beverly O’Donnell: A good job in Gettysburg for Bev.

To Rick Allen and Christina Moon: Many years of happiness together.

To Mike Noirot, Tom Clemens, John Hoptak, Greg Biggs, Dan Mallock, Chris Stowe, Mike Peters, Brad Snyder, and John Benintendi: Lots more fun battlefield stomping together.

To Mark Snell: That 2011 is the year you finally take the plunge….you know what I mean….

To Ted Alexander: Having you get healthy and for you to be around for a lot more years, old friend.

To Mannie and Susan Gentile: Many years of wedded bliss.

To my brother J. D. Petruzzi: Healthy hands and wrists and many more years of productive collaboration.

And to all of you, my readers: I wish for you the knowledge of how much our irregular interactions mean to me, and how much I enjoy meeting you when the opportunity to do so presents itself. And I also wish each and every one of you a joyous Christmas and a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011.

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This article by historian/analyst D. L. Adams is thought-provoking and worth reading. My antipathy toward Nathan Bedford Forrest is well-known and I need not repeat it here, particularly in light of his racist roots. I’m not 100% certain that I agree with Adams or his conclusions here, but they are worth considering. Since I assume that most of my readers are not familiar with Adams and his writings, much of his commentary has to do with the threat to national security posed by radical Islam, so read this article with that in mind.

See what you think and draw your own conclusions.

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After being one of the founding members of the excellent Civil Warriors blog, my friend Prof. Brooks Simpson has struck out on his own and has begun his own solo blog, which is called Crossroads. It would not be appropriate to welcome Brooks to the blogosphere, as he’s hardly a newbie, but he is a newbie to having his own blog. I’ve added a link and will make Brooks’ blog a regular stop. And thanks very much for the kind words, Brooks. It’s always a pleasure.

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Today marks the fifth anniversary of this blog, and my 1082nd post here. There have only been 82 posts this year, largely because I took several months off from blogging entirely after averaging 250 posts per year for four years, and then because I decided to only post when I had something worthwhile to say instead of posting just for the sake of posting. I hope that you haven’t been disappointed by the relative paucity of posts this year, but I have found it more rewarding to post only when I have something worthy of saying.

I know that I say this every year, but it is true every year, and remains true…..

I started this blog as a little exercise in narcissism. I was surprised to find out how many of you read it regularly, I was surprised by the volume of traffic that it draws, and I remain astounded by how personally rewarding I find the interactions that I have with you, my readers, each and every day. I find the posts from descendants of the forgotten cavalrymen that I profile most rewarding of all, but I value each and every one of you and my interactions with you here. Thank you for enriching my life, and I hope you will continue on this journey with me.

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My friend Mike Block, who is a member of the board of trustees of the Brandy Station Foundation, and who is researching a book on the winter encampment of the Army of the Potomac during the winter of 1863-1864, has launched a new blog called Today at Brandy Station, which follows events that took place at Brandy Station on a day-by-day basis. There’s lots of interest here, so enjoy. I’ve added this blog to the blogroll.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Mike.

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