Maybe I'll have more activity this week than last, but probably not.  Last week at work just seemed to beat me to death.  A two-day weekend just doesn't feel long enough to have recovered.On the plus side, I've been reading more, delving into Robinson Crusoe, a book I first read when I was just a kid, part of a biblophilic aunt's huge book collection.

Whatever happened to all her books?  I wish I knew.  She was the only aunt who gave me books instead of toys at Christmas.  She gave me Tom Sawyer when I was six years old.  She gave me two excellent books on trapping and handling furs when I was a teenager.  She had a complete collection of hardbacks by Zane Grey.  I wish I had managed to get my hands on them.

Well, anyway, checking Statcounter today I noticed that it appears that someone from a very nearby small town discovered this blog.  Whether they become a repeat visitor remains to be seen, but this is the first time a hit has come from that close to home.

Someone added their site to the webring today, but then withdrew it two minutes later, before I activated it.  I don't know why, but his site looks promising and if you read this I just want you to know that I've added your blog to my private subscriptions so I can check it out for a while.

This week at work should be easier, so maybe I won't be so tired when I get home.  I'm also going to keep working on those CHL Zip code maps and will be posting them as I get them finished.  Wilson County is easy, since it has only about 7 different ZIPs, but Bexar is going to be a real, er...bear (hee hee).  I don't expect any especially illuminating insights to come out of this, it's just something I've wanted to patch together for a while just for my own curiosity.

By the way, I don't know how it happened, but the pdf file map of all the Texas ZIP codes was about 3.8 megs, and I downloaded it at an average speed of about 12 kb/s.  That's way fast.  I don't know how my connection managed to bring it through that fast, but I wish it happened more often.  Usually my best download speed on this dial-up service is around 4 to 4.5.

I downloaded a pdf map of all Texas ZIP codes so I could start mapping CHL numbers.  This will serve no useful purpose other than to satisfy my own curiosity.

However, does anyone know if cumulative CHL information is available for Texas since the inception of the law?  DPS seems to post only one year at a time, and the older data just disappears.

So far, in my home county of Wilson, adjacency to Bexar County seems to contribute to higher numbers.  This could be because of higher population density, a greater number of commuters who work in San Antonio and want to be armed during their daily commute, or both.  I believe that a large number of people in these ZIPs once lived much closer to, or in San Antonio, and are therefore more crime-sensitive (or paranoid, just pick whichever term you want).  ZIP codes on the other side of the county away from Bexar have much lower numbers.

Anyway, I'd like to get my hands on total numbers (all licenses issued, revoked or suspended since 1996), or at least all the yearly numbers, if anyone knows if this is possible.  I might try contacting DPS and asking, but I don't expect a whole lot of help from them.  After all, it's not like I'm an "authorized journalist" or anything.