SITREP

Apologies for my prolonged absence. A month ago Mrs. EMG and I booked a flight to Nova Scotia with the intention of spending a refreshing week in early August with her family on that province's South Shore, drinking beer, shooting emptied beer cans with dirty old rifles, riding four wheelers, fishing, eating lobster and brushing up on our Wedgepudlian accents. But being--as the poet says--that "the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley," our vacation ended-up including only items 1 and 4 of the above, with the following surprise entries: the deaths of two good and well-loved men (both 58), as many wakes and funerals, one heart-attack, the agonizing demise of a small business, the consequent loss of four livelihoods, and the spectacle of various silver-tongued vultures preying on the fools and the innocent who remained.

But that's to put it in its bleakest terms. There was much good that came of these unpleasant, if inevitable, events. Very much good indeed. But it's been a taxing little while. I might take a couple more days.