Where have all the blogs gone?

I left my laptop at home when I left and didn't get to do much web surfing while I was away. I was looking forward to checking out all my favorite blogs when I came back, but it seems like a lot of my fellow bloggers have signed off.
What is going on?
Have I missed something?
Was there a blog virus going around that I'm not aware of?
The shame is, that most of them didn't just stop blogging, but took their entire blogs of the web, not allowing me to even see the reason for their public departures.
Anyways, to all the bloggers who have gone missing, I hope you still do some surfing every once in a while and maybe you'll read this.

Wishing you the best in all!