Hello there

Hi everybody,

It has been a week since I last posted and it's about time for an explanation for my absence.

Last Thursday, I found myself suddenly and inexplicably denied internet connectivity. This was quite mysterious as my modem seemed to be working fine and my computer showed that I was online.

Comcast seemed to be unable and unwilling to help, so after trying to diagnose and repair the situation on my own - with no luck- I called some friends who are IT pros and picked their brains.

After a fair bit of doinking around, it became apparent the there was some sort of unidentified network set up on my computer. While I was unable to dial up anywebsites, this network was chugging away, pumping data through my system.

The consensus was that a reformatting was in order. I spent a good day or so backing up and early Saturday morning I reformatted. This should reset everything back to normal, right?

Wrong. When I rebooted, I found that I had no local area connection, no Network 3 to hook up to the internet - nothing. It was as if whatever had hijacked my system took a big chunk of it away when I removed it, not even leaving a bloody socket or stump.

My computer is now a glorified MP3 player and I have to live with that for now. I could have it fixed, but the quoted prices, just to get me in the door, would have me well on my way to a brand new rig. As I am a bit tight on funds right now - it's the offseason in my business and it has been a noticably bad year - any timetable for my return to Uncertain Times is a big unknown. I'm shooting for the spring, but would resume sooner, probably after the new year, if my fortunes were to turn in a positive direction.

To be frank, I'm kind of enjoying being disconnected. My brain is dialing down a bit, and even in this short of a period of time I am enjoying reading real books and catching up on my life in meatspace. It's a refreshing change. I spent a great deal of my spare time on this blog.

I won't deny that there was a degree of separation anxiety. The first three days were the worst. I still dream about blogging, but the dreams have ceased to be the Hitchcockian nightmares they were early on. This is not a cop-out to pull away - I miss it terribly.

I will certainly miss those of you who read, commented, supported and communicated with me over these last few months. You folks are truly the best part of the experience.

But this is not goodbye, or even farewell... it's more like: Hold on... I'll be back as soon as I can.

I have recently acquired a pda that I can check my email with, so feel free to drop me a line. Once I get the hang of this thing, I'll be Tweeting now and again and even making attempts to post with it. (Right now, I have difficulty staying on for more than 30 minutes at a time, but that will pick up after a while.) Regardless, I'll be popping in here at least once a month or so with updates, so keep an eye out.

Later, all.