A Personal Note...

Hi everyone,

As you may be aware, I’m generally highly reticent to share personal information online. The internet, is, after all, a mostly insane place where you can never be entirely sure who you’re going to meet. But some of you may have noticed that my posting has been less than purely on schedule the past couple of months, which is attributable to a lot of life happening which ate in to what buffer I had. But the main reason that buffer was so small is that the past few months is that I’ve been having to take care of our family’s aging and increasingly ailing dog, who passed away this week. She was a genuinely remarkable animal, intelligent, patient, and loyal. A happy animal who could easily fool you with the saddest hound eyes.

Her death comes on a long line of too many others for our family. One of the worst parts of growing older is that you reach an age when you realize from here on out you’ll be attending more funerals than weddings. And we’ve had more than our share to go to, having lost some very close friends and family members over the past few years. It begins to take a toll. I am, quite frankly, a little tired.

If my job were to go into the ingot factory and cast ingots tomorrow, I’m sure that I could in and diligently enough work the ingot casting machine and let my thoughts go where they may. But my job is to make you laugh, and I’m honestly having trouble finding things funny at the moment. So I’m going to take a couple of weeks off, regroup, and find out what the new schedule of my days will be without the companion who has shaped them for the past fifteen years at my side.

I’ll be back very soon. Meanwhile, I’m pausing subscriptions so you won’t be charged for this time. Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Regards,

Zaftig Pink