Nothing like adversity to make you realize the important things in life.

Two weeks ago, my wife caught on that someone had hacked our credit card. There were “kiddy” purchases to online trendy shops (and a damn food delivery service in Albany and a snack bar in a drug rehab shop in Phoenix). Like a horse with a broken leg, we took out our cards and shot them.

You really learn what it’s like to be without credit without that card. Everything is in cash. I’m not a five-buck-lunch-run-the-card sort of yuppie, but there was something I wanted to buy online that I had to wait for. Eventually the new card arrived in the mail. Went into the computer room, fired up my machine, and the wireless router went >POP<.

Ah, Good Christ, now the internet is down.

The next night, JB and I went over to Panera Bread to use their internet to send out my “I don’t hate you. My email will be down for a bit” messages. Did you know that now at Panera you only get 30 minutes of net time? So much for it being an easy-going, euro-style beanhouse. ‘Bun and run’, their new motto. So I hurriedly posted my desperate emails, set my accounts to passive mode, blew taps on Facebook, folded the flag and stepped into the lifeboat.

Do you know how long your evenings are without internet? I felt like a smoker – I’d keep thinking about it. I’d watch a movie and want to look it up, or read something that would pose a question, or have a thought I’d want to share, but no. Still, I got a lot of reading done.

So anyway, I’m back. Sorry for the delay and lack of notification. Updates will resume now. I can’t think of anything else that might interr