Hey all,
I've been off the radar for the past few weeks.
My thanks to everyone who has emailed to inquire about my health and that of my family. We're all just fine.
My absence is work related.
As some of you know, last fall the production facility of the company that pays for my extravagant lifestyle was destroyed by fire. That meant that the company's contracts were outsourced until the company can rebuild.
That has led to some issues with some of our subcontractors who can't even meet our (admittedly low) standards.
That's where I come in, I suppose. Since the fire, one of our managers has been a traveling troubleshooter. Sadly, his wife has been stricken by cancer and does not have long to live. We planned to address issues on a case-by-case basis.
As I returned from delivering my daughter to her new life, my boss called to tell me I was needed in rural Alabama (which in about 1,000 miles from my home). I barely had time to pack some clothes before I was flying southward.
The tiny little town I stay in didn't have a library and the B&B where I lay my head at night had spotty internet service. I could rarely connect from the room and when I could it was almost impossible to do anything with my e-mail. I tried numerous times to send a message to someone but invariably the site would time out before it could be sent.
Because of the nature of some of SOL's stories (including one of mine so I'm not casting stones), I was uncomfortable using a company computer to access the site. I don't need the hassle of explaining to our IT department why it popped up on Barracuda (the filtering software we use).
So "Diamond" has been pushed to the back-burner. The good news is that I'm home for a few days before hitting the road again. I hope to catch up on everything in the coming days but, well, to be blunt, SOL is pretty low on the list of things I need to reconnect with.
Chapters 30-39 are in hand but unformatted. I will do my utmost to get a few of them ready and posted before I head off to the great divide.
So, the upshot is that my family is doing well and so am I (now that I'm home). I missed Father's Day with my crew (which was also my birthday) so we're going to spend the weekend doing all sorts of fun stuff. If I can get some chapters up before I depart we'll call it a win.
Best wishes,
Jay C.