Checking In

My apologies to those people who have been concerned about me, although any concern you may have felt was unfortunately not misplaced. I've been in horrible shape for multiple reasons. I'm a little better, but not a whole lot. The awful flu/bronchitis/whatever that I had, and that took three weeks to work through my system, keeps threatening to come back. So I frequently retreat to my bed and sleep for hours on end. This has the regrettable result of cutting down considerably on my ability to be productive in terms of writing, and to do much of anything else.

As an extra added bonus, I and several other people in my building have been without hot water since late Saturday afternoon. We still don't have any as of Tuesday morning. The lack of hot water followed Saturday's torrential rainstorm by a few hours. It turns out -- after I called the gas company (after calling the manager), because I thought I smelled gas and became very worried about what might be happening -- that the basement was flooded. That resulted in some of the pilot lights going out, but they did determine that there isn't a gas leak that need concern us (although the gas guy told me that my senses weren't deceiving me, and I probably did smell gas at one point). Anyway, there still isn't any hot water!!! Not remotely happy.

All my immense gratitude to those who responded so kindly to my plea for help. And extra thanks to Chris Floyd, Tarzie and Tom Knapp, who urged their readers to help out if they could. (If others did the same, special thanks to you as well, and I'm sorry for not mentioning you by name.) I'm slowly working my way through email, as well as sending thank you notes. If I haven't gotten to you yet, I will do so in the fairly near future. I'm still functioning at a very low level, so it takes me quite a while to get anything done.

And I am working on a new piece, which I hope to complete toward the end of the week. I think I'll keep the subject a secret for now, in part because the shape and emphasis of the post are still developing and changing in my mind. Even though the subject is a very serious one, I hope to have some fun with it.

Because of people's generosity, I was able to order a new computer, which arrived yesterday. It's not great, but it does everything I need, and it was cheap. I still haven't unpacked it. I continue to be out of it to an extent that makes it very difficult to deal with anything new, even when it's a good thing. So I'll enjoy the new computer in a day or two, when I hopefully feel a bit stronger and can think a little better.

Many thanks again. Hope to be back soon.

(I will mention, but only glancingly, that I'm in the usual position after paying first of the month bills, that is, I only have a few hundred dollars to my name. But I'll save my deeply begging donation post for after I publish a new post or three. Getting the new computer and paying the basic bills has reduced what little cushion had been provided to very little. But I had to get the new computer, since this backup makes me incredibly nervous. I fear it will breathe its last at any moment, but I hope not for another few days. In the meantime, if that ten dollars is burning a hole in your pocket, the cats and I could put it to excellent use. The cats continue to be my lifesaver. I can't imagine how I'd survive all this without them.)