And so, I'm finally settled in. . .

. . .to some degree, and I sit down to blog. The only thing is, when you've had almost zero exposure to the news for a week, it takes about a week to get back up to speed. Things change that quickly in the blogosphere, and news in general.

During what little time I've had to actually catch up with the news, I've also had to catch up with friends and regular contacts I haven't heard from in a while, just to let them know that everything's OK. Also, there are the friends who began to rematerialize once I got the last of the furniture moved in, just dropping by to check out the new digs. On top of that, I've taken on some new responsibilities in my life, and have had to make a lot of last-minute adjustments as time gets compressed when my best laid plains have been torn asunder.

While I've been going through this, I've been a little stressed out and preoccupied, and am just now able to get a handle on things. It's times like these when you strain friendships, and I hope I haven't done that too much with too many. If I have, I apologize and hope you'll forgive me if I seemed ungrateful or thoughtless. I promise, things will be back to normal soon. . .and I'll be as normal as I get.

Now, I guess I should get back to the news and stuff, before I turn this blog into a full-fledged diary. I may not be able to blog as much as I always have for a while, but I will do my best to update daily.

Thank you all.

Walt

Just a little while longer. . .

. . .and I should be able to fall into a routine that will allow me to keep up with my blog. I really am sorry that it's taken me so long to make this adjustment, but things will eventually settle down.

Thanks for all your patience and concern. I'll try to be back in full swing sometime this weekend.

Walt

I'm touched. . .

. . .by the responses to my return. To be honest, I just now got around to reading them because I didn't really expect there to be much reaction, given how long I was absent.

Blondie, esgaroth, applepie, Moogman, bouzouki, Ala71, Ghostie, Gayle, and Judy. I hope no one was offended that it took me so long to look in on this thread. I honestly have been caught up in some other things, and just set aside the blog for a few days.

You all have been so helpful and supportive that I'll never be able to make it up to you.

I sincerely apologize for the delay in my response.

Walt

Look who's back. . .

. . .from a week-long trek through the hell that is moving. To say the least, this year has been a rough one so far, but it's only getting started. I suspect things will begin to improve shortly.

Throughout it all, I got a lot of encouragement and help from old friends made on Lucianne.com. Without Lucianne.com, I would be in one hell of a fix today, and there's no way I can sufficiently express my gratitude to everyone who offered so much, and gave me so many reasons to keep my chin up.

I'm now living in my new place, which is by no means a castle, but compared to where I was living, it's the Taj Mahal. No leaky roof, no drafty windows and doors, and no abandoned house falling down outside my window. The heat seems fairly well distributed, allowing me to actually sleep in my bedroom, rather than on the couch in front of a space heater on cold nights.

I also have a dependable car that I managed to get with the help of someone who had no reason to trust me, other than my presence at Lucianne.com over the years. And, for that, I will be eternally grateful.

I can't get into too many of the specifics regarding the anquish I've experienced over the past couple of weeks, but a good bit of it was of a personal nature, which compounded all of the other difficulties, and began to cause me to wonder whether there was just something very basically wrong with me. Without the kindness and charity of my fellow Ldotters, I would most likely be busily drinking myself into a stupor right now, and there's a good chance I would have stayed that way for a good, long time.

Looking back on this experience, I can see all kinds of ways I could have avoided all the problems I ran into over the past couple of weeks. But, all of those ways amounted to stagnation during a time in my life when I'm desperately trying to move ahead. I don't see how I would have been any happier in the long run if I'd taken that tack. I took a chance, and it fell apart. But, I have faith, friends, and family to lean on in times like these, and they made all the difference in the world.

To all my friends out there who generously gave of themselves by whatever means, I'll never be able to thank you enough. You are all very much appreciated and loved. Thanks to you all, I've got a lot of blessings to count.

It feels good to be back.